The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

HEALTH

Health round-up
Health sector dogged by wrangles
By Vibha Sharma
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Dec 29 — Looking back at the year, doctors, and health experts have little to cheer as controversies dogged the health sector. But on the positive side, groundwork has begun on six super-speciality state-of-the-art advanced centres at the PGI.

The year was full of activity in the three major hospitals. The PGI, the Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32, and the Government Hospital in Sector 16, all have had their share of good and bad events. The PGI and the GMCH got new Directors, the latter after some controversy. But the PGI did not get a new Dean for the third year running.

At the PGI, the controversy over appointments at the senior levels continued. An OPD block was readied but not opened. Adding to this was the heartburn among the faculty over posting and pay packets. Allegations of stagnation in the faculty marked the year. Various departments, however, organised workshops in which experts from all over the world participated.

The year began with Prof S.K. Sharma, Head of the Urology Department, taking over as the Director of the PGI. There were as many as 10 contenders for the post, including the senior-most faculty member, Prof R.J. Dash, Head, Endocrinology Department. What probably worked in Prof Sharma’s favour was his non-controversial status and experience as Medical Superintendent.

He took over as the ninth Director of the institute after Prof B.K. Sharma retired on Nov 30, 1999. Prof N.K. Ganguly, Director-General, Indian Council of Medical Research, was the officiating Director for the interim period. Prof Dash did lay his claim but the institute body preferred Prof Sharma.

PGI’s new OPD, kept waiting for a formal inauguration throughout the year. Sources said the PGI wanted the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, to come for the inauguration.

The Medical Superintendent of the institute, Dr A.K. Gupta, also remained in the news, thanks to an unseemly controversy. An issue was made of the year in which he completed his post-graduation. There appeared to be some mismatch about the year he did his postgraduation and the year he got his degree. As a result, he was barred from appearing in an interview for the post of a professor at the AIIMS. The PGI, which was asked to take note of this mismatch, wrote off the controversy as a typographical mistake and gave Dr Gupta a clean chit.

Another controversy was over the death of Simran Uppal, a young girl in the PGI. The case was dismissed in a probe by the institute which absolved the staff. However, her father had maintained that Simran was admitted to the PGI after an accident and had died because the CT scan machine not working and the hospital staff was negligent.

An institution, with a big infrastructure is bound to have logistical problems, but the fact that various life saving machines, utilities and equipment, besides the telephones and the paging system do not work indicate that the institute needs a fresh look at its facilities.

Some good news came from the Union Government which released funds for six superspeciality centres. The Telemedicine Technology Project was commissioned in October. The institute had its convocation in the same month after a gap of three years .

As far as the faculty goes, some issues remained unresolved, including anomalies in pay scales. The Bakshi Committee recommendations which gave the doctors higher salaries and perks were withdrawn by the Government weeks after its implementation. The PGI Governing Body approved a 25 per cent pay hike for professors from October, 1997.

Prof S.M. Bose was unanimously elected president of the faculty association .The PGI had a new PRO when Mrs Manju Wadwalker took charge in November. Mr Subhash Chander Nirankari was elected president of the employees union. The institute also had many VIP patients including the Karmapa and the Dalai Lama.

The GMCH, Sector 32, after a fortnight long controversy, finally had a Director-Principal, in November. The issue erupted when the charge of Secretary, Medical Education and Research, was withdrawn from the former Director, Prof V.K. Kak following an order of the Union Ministry of Home Affairs, and handed over to the Adviser to the UT Administrator, Ms Vineeta Rai.

Prof O.N. Nagi, Head of the Orthopaedics Department, PGI, who was selected from a panel of five senior professors of the PGI, refused to take charge of the GMCH without the post of Secretary, MER.

Later Prof S.B.S. Mann, Head, ENT, was offered the post and he took over as Director-Principal, GMCH in November. At present, he also holds the post of Director, MER.

The foundation stone of the Block E of the GMCH was laid by the Union Home Minister, Mr L.K. Advani, in April. The Medical Council of India gave approval to start post graduate courses in four subjects. Seven other departments were refused permission on the ground of not having adequately experienced faculty and facilities.

GMCH, Sector 32, after SGPGI, Lucknow, AIIMS, Delhi and PGI, Chandigarh, became part of a telemedicine project. Besides, it also started its website on hospital services which was inaugurated by Lt Gen J.F.R. Jacob on January 13.

The malaria wing was transferred from the Municipal Corporation to the Director, Health Services, Chandigarh Administration. The UT, this year registered only one polio case which was an improvement over the previous year’s figure of four. The civil dispensary in Sector 45 was updated to the level of a polyclinic.

The Government Hospital, Sector 16, got a face lift with the sprucing up of its infrastructure and facilities. The labour room was renovated and the capacity of the emergency ward was increased to 20 beds. The ICU and X-Ray facilities were shifted. To make room for the expansion of the emergency ward, the offices of the MS and the DMS were shifted to the new building.

OPD awaits inauguration by PM
Tribune News Service

CHANDIGARH, Dec 29 — The Nehru Hospital in the PGI was inaugurated by Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru and the research blocks by the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. A reason enough for the institute authorities to wish that the Rs 20-crore new state-of-the-art OPD, which celebrated its first year of formal completion this month, is inaugurated by the Prim Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee.

The official version, in the past one year had always been that the new building would be operational soon enough and that as far as the convenience of the patients was concerned, the services of the hospital had not been affected. As soon as the OPDs are shifted, the space in the old building can be renovated and utilised to create more facilities for the departments , they add.

According to another version, since the institute authorities had already written to the PMO office requesting the Prime Minister to inaugurate the new OPD, it has now become difficult to ask some other VVIP to do the honours. Hence the status quo.

The five-storied 2,70,000-square feet OPD, presently awaiting a VVIP was visualised more than a decade ago. In fact, the administrative approval for the OPD was given in the 29th Standing Estate Committee (SEC) meeting held on November 13, 1990. The SEC approves the work to be undertaken by the engineering department of the institute. The initial cost for the building was estimated at Rs 11.18 crore.

The construction work for the four blocks of the new OPD commenced in November 1994. In December 1997, the construction cost was revised to Rs 17.90 crore. The building costing about Rs 20 crore was eventually completed in December 1999. And since then it has been awaiting a formal inauguration by a VVIP.

The building has four blocks —A, B, C and D. While the B and C blocks are five-storied each, block A has four levels. Block D houses a massive cafeteria for the doctors, staff and patients. The building has six operation theaters, six lifts, a day-care centre and 22 registration counters.

The new OPD is equipped with a 500 KVA generator and has a parking area for about 250 cars and 500 scooters. The 25,000-square feet covered area is fully air conditioned and 1,25,000 square feet area is air cooled.

With almost all modern facilities and amenities, the building when operational will take care of the congestion, mismanagement and unhygienic conditions faced by the patients in the present set-up. The congenial surroundings will naturally add to the convenience of the doctors.

The sources add that since infrastructure is ready, the OPD can become fully operational within a month’s time. The Physiotherapy Department is already operating from the ground level for past six months now. As per the plans, besides the special clinics departments which will be shifted include ENT, eye, orthopaedics, gynaecology and internal medicine.

SPORT

Title for St. John’s
By Our Sports Reporter

CHANDIGARH, Dec 29 — A superb knock of 40 runs by Karan Dhanoa enabled the hosts bag the St John’s Challenger Trophy today.

In the final of the under-12 section played today, St John’s Sector 26, overpowered YPS SAS Nagar by three wickets. In under-16 match, DAV Senior Secondary school, Sector 8, outplayed Hansraj Public School, Sector 6, Panchkula.

Brief scores final : Under 12 — YPS SAS Nagar: 127 for 6 in 30 overs (Keerat Singh 31 n.o.,Gurkeerat Singh 26, Angad 12, Rajat 10); St John’s-26: 129 for 7 in 25.1 overs (Karan Dhanoa 40,Vikram Talwar 23, Abhinav Sharma 20, Simar 2 for 13, Gurkeerat 2 for 28).

The under-12 team of St John’s High School Sector 26 with Chandigarh.

Sunny beats Deepak

Sunny Bhalla clinched a crucial semi-final league win over defending champion Deepak Goel 48-32, 64-36, 66-12 in the Saurav Khattar Memorial Haryana State Billiards and Snooker Championship played here at the Billiards Hall, YMCA, Sector 11. In the second league match, Manan Nagpal displayed a fine game to overcome tough resistance of Anil Sharma 54-25, 54-41, 48-57, 64-53 in a well-fought match. In a junior snooker match, Aman Bhasin stormed into the final by easily beating Abhinav Bajaj 77-20, 46-30, 60-19.

NCA triumph

The National Cricket Stadium, New Delhi, team got the better of Hansraj Coaching Centre in both under-14 and under-12 sections of the Invitation Cup Cricket Tournament at Manav Kendra ground, Panchkula.

Brief scores: under-14: HRCA 110 all out in 25 overs (Gaurav Chopra 17, Vivek Walia 16, Balemdra 16, Vishal 14, Jaideep 5 for 24); NCS : 114 for 5 in 24.3 overs (Jaideep 59, Yogesh 25, Nitin Gandhi 3 for 8); under 12: HRCA 95 all out (Saurabh Chopra 32, Jayant 24, Tanu Vaid 2 for 13, Saviny 2 for 6); NCS: 96 for 9.

A tennis star in the making
By Arvind Katyal

CHANDIGARH, Dec 29 — Meet the new tennis prodigy of Chandigarh, 16-year-old Saurabh Singh, who has the potential of becoming a national star.

Saurabh began playing tennis only four years ago when he returned from a school in Ajmer. He recalls how in 1996, while playing against a top seed, he was on the verge of creating an upset, when he was told during a break, that his opponent was a top seed. He became nervous and lost the match. This happened because of a lack of temperament, which he has been trying to build all these years.

Saurabh who stand five feet ten inches in his socks, attended a five-month training course in the academy of John Newcombe in New Braunfels (Texas) in the company of 70 trainees from all over the world. They had to undergo fitness training, a daily weakness removal session on the courts and competitive matches. They were also shown video tapes of their training sessions which helped them to remove their weaknesses.

Saurabh says that Indian players need to concentrate on physical fitness as 80 per cent of the game depended on how fit one was.

Before his training in the USA, he had played in a few ITF tournaments in the Caribbean Islands. Last year, playing in the domestic circuit, he was crowned national doubles champion in the under-16 section at Delhi, in combination with Amanjot Singh. He admitted that since he had started playing tennis rather late, he would have to work hard. Saurabh is at present being coached by Gurvinder Singh under the overall guidance of the Chief Coach Beant Singh. Son of a sports-loving father and mother who is a former national level hockey player, Saurabh holds Andre Agassi as his model. He is likely to play in Sri Lanka, Delhi, Chandigarh, Calcutta, and in Bangladesh in the coming months. But his nearest ITF tournament will be in Sri Lanka in the second week of January, 2001.