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plan ned as a 500 be d h o s p i t a l , it usually has a patient
o c c u p a n c y well over a 1000 , resulting in many patients lying
o n the floor, overcrowding and chron i c s ho r t ag e s o f pe rsonnel
and supplies . A government-owned institution, i t is ope n to
the genel'a1 public . 'i'he subsidi zed r a t es charged make i t
accessible to the genera l public .
The ho s pita l has a very b usy o bstetri c and qynaecoLoqy
department that handles about 65\ of all i ns tit utiona l
deliveries i n t h e d i stri c t . On the, a verage a b out 9 8 00
de liveries occur each year at the hospita l, with a C:etily
average of about 2 5 deliveries . The labour ward which ha ndle s
all these deliverie s , ha d at t h e t ime of the s tUdy on l y t en
flrst stage beds , five sec ond s t a ge / delivery beds, a nd s ix
i mmed i a t e po stpartum bed s. It is the r efore not un commo n to
have patients sharing bed s on most days . The re are two other
lying -in wards, e a c h with about 36 beds which cater t o po s t ­
c a e s a r e a n eect.Icn pa tients and other pue r p e ra l ad mi ssi on s.
The se are a lmost always full y oc cupied . Because of the l ack of
s pac e , patients delivered normally are d l achar qed h ome with i n
24 hou rs of de livery i f no severe he a l t h c omplica t i ons occur
at labo u r .
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There are no restrictions wh a t s oev er as to who de l i v e rs
i n the h ospital and prior cookf og i s not needed . It ha s been
obs e rve d t hat many women come to the hospital i n the late
stages o f labour and therefore frequently spend l e s s than 24