LUCKNOW, Feb. 25 -- A trauma centre set up in Lucknow's Jankipuram extension to save lives is itself in critical condition, understaffed, under-resourced, and unable to deliver the specialised care it was built to provide.

The Jankipuram Trauma Centre, a 20-bed facility established in 2023 to treat life-threatening injuries, has only three staff nurses against 15 sanctioned posts. Not a single operation theatre (OT) technician has been posted in three years, despite four positions being approved. The centre also has no neurosurgeon, a glaring gap for a unit designed to handle accident cases.

The emergency medical officer is doubling as a general physician, attending to outpatient department (OPD) patients alongside trauma cases. Unskill...