DNA
26 March 2009
By Nozia Sayyed

DMER team of dentists to visit Sassoon Hospital for inspection
The city may get its first government–run dental college. Currently, there are three government–run dental colleges in Maharashtra – Aurangabad, Mumbai and Nagpur.

BJ Medical College former dean Dr. Nirmala Borade said the Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER) has sent a letter saying that a team of dentists will soon visit the hospital for an inspection in this regard.

DMER director Dr. WB Tayade told DNA that the plan of setting up a dental college in Pune was at a nascent stage.

“There are several factors like land, financial feasibility that need to be considered before taking a decision on this issue,” Tayade said.

Local legislator Kamal Dhole–Patil, who had proposed the idea, said, “It is important for Pune to have a government dental college. On my recent visit to the Sassoon Hospital, I noticed how the existing dental department is poorly managed. It doesn’t have any modern equipment and no major surgeries are carried out there.”

According to her, a government–run dental college and hospital will help the poor to get affordable treatment, which they don’t get at a private set–up.

It has not performed any major surgery in last one year
The state–run–hospital Sassoon’s dental department has performed only 84 minor surgeries till date in the last one year. While hospital authorities blamed the department officials of not being proactive, dental department head Dr. Chandrashekhar Chaudhary said, “We neither have adequate expert hands, nor the state–of–the–art equipment to do the surgeries.”

It also doesn’t have honorary surgeons. “The department currently has only two resident doctors, a staff nurse and myself,” he said. Efforts are on to get some honorary surgeons.

“We have also written to the government in this regard,” he said. He explained that without the adequate staff and equipment, the department is not in a position to conduct major surgeries.

Chaudhary said they don’t even have a dedicated operation theatre. “Whatever surgeries or procedures like root canal, tooth extraction and bristles are performed here at the department are being carried out on the seven dental chairs that we have.” Former dean Nirmala Borade said patients requiring major dental surgeries are referred to the government dental set–up in Mumbai. Around 60 to 70 patients report at the outdoor patient department of the hospital daily.