HEALTH

New facilities for Sector 16 hospital
By Vibha Sharma
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, Jan 1 — The Government Hospital, Sector 16, is headed for a face-lift. In the next few months a new trauma ward and a renovated cardiac care unit (CCU) will be added to the existing facilities.

According to Dr K.K. Garg, Medical Superintendent of the hospital, the main aim is to provide all facilities to the patients under one roof. Earlier this year, besides the renovation of the labour rooms, the emergency ward was also expanded to 16 bed capacity. The hospital does have an operating CCU located in the basement, through it does not have a separate trauma ward. In the absence of a special trauma ward, the accident victims are also kept in the general emergency.

A trauma ward with a capacity to accommodate 16 patients and a seven bed CCU is expected to be commissioned by the end of March next year. Also, interestingly for the first time since its construction decades back, the flyover connecting the old and the new buildings of the hospital will also be put to use. The construction and renovation work, according to Dr Garg, has already started.

The new CCU is coming up adjacent to the new emergency. The trauma ward will be accommodated in the old building of the hospital. As per Dr G. Diwan, Deputy Medical Superintendent, the first floor of the building has been vacated and the renovation work has commenced. The space vacated in the basement by shifting of the CCU will be utilised for the hospital stores.

The trauma unit and the CCU will have the latest equipment for which about Rs 30 to 40 lakhs is expected to be sanctioned soon by the Chandigarh Administration

The hospital receives as many as five to six trauma patients every day, besides 20 to 30 cases of heart attack every month. According to Dr Diwan, with the coming up of the new CCU near the existing emergency wards, the patients with a heart attack can be given treatment without wasting precious time. Moreover, the new state of the art CCU will also have two beds for the intensive care unit.

The new trauma wards for male and female patients will also have the latest facilities and equipment. The existing ramp will enable the patients suffering from trauma injuries to be taken directly into the operation theatre.

After operation, the patients, instead of being first brought to the ground floor and then shifted to the trauma wards on the first floor will now be directly moved to the old building via the existing flyover. The connecting flyover between two buildings will be put to use to for the first time. 

More baby boys bring joy in 2001
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, Jan 1 — Life and death wait for no one. The three city hospitals — PGI, GMCH, Sector 32 and the Government Hospital, Sector 16 witnessed the usual rush, with regular attendance by doctors, paramedics and other staff.

Boys scored over girls, as a majority of the newborns in the three hospitals, on the first day of the new millennium happened to be males. Even as babies were making their way into the world, the other side of human life showed up, when two persons, including a woman, died within hours of commencement of the new year.

On the babies front, till about late this evening, 10 babies had made their way into the world at the PGI. Incidentally the institute also has the honour of bringing the first newborn of the city into the new millennium, at exactly one minute past midnight. Ms Nishi Shyla and Mr Salim Masih are the proud parents of this 2.71 kg baby boy.

Ms Nishi Shyla is a staff nurse at the institute. Interestingly, the second baby at the PGI, also a male, was born to Ms Daljeet, who is also a staff nurse at the institute. This baby came into the world at 1.05 a.m. through a complicated caesarean section. Out of the 10 babies born at PGI, six are boys and four girls.

Interestingly, the first one born, after midnight in the other two hospitals, GMCH, Sector 32 and General Hospital, Sector 16, were also boys. The GMCH, Sector 32, brought into the world nine babies till about 8 p.m.

The first baby, a 2.8 kg male was born to Ms Rinku Khosla at 12.36 a.m.

Mr Sanjeev Khosla is the proud father. In all, five boys and four girls were born till 8 p.m. at the GMCH, Sector 32.

The GH, Sector 16 brought into the world 16 babies, till about forenoon today, out of which 11 were male and five female. The first baby was born to Ms Kiran at 1.45 a.m. through a normal delivery.

Mr Faquir Chand died at the Government Hospital in Sector 16, following a heart attack at 6.50 a.m. In the GMCH, a 32-year-old woman, Sangeeta, died at 12.05 p.m. following a prolonged illness due to hepatic failure. In the PGI, till late this evening no death had been registered.

The PGI experienced a normal emergency rush. As many as 43 people were rushed to the Emergency, out of which 16 were Medico-Legal Cases (MLC). In the GH-16, five cases were registered in the emergency wards, two were MLC

At the GMCH, Sector 32, till about late this evening, 27 cases were registered, out of which six were MLC.

SPORT

Lalit wins billiards title
By Our Sports Reporter

CHANDIGARH, Jan 1 — Lalit Ailawadi of Ambala defeated Deepak Goel today to win the open billiards title of the Saurav Khattar Memorial Haryana State Billiards and Snooker Championship. The meet concluded in the Sector 11 Billiards Hall here today.

The match was even in the first half, but later, Lalit built up lead by scoring many breaks of more than 30 points. The final score was 365-309 in Lalit’s favour. Aman Bhasin won the junior’s snooker title by beating Suvir Sethi, 46-13, 33-65, 64-24 and 52-22. Aman potted well to outwit Suvir.

Basketball teams
Mandeep Kaur of the Sector 36 MCM DAV College for Women and Harkanwer Singh of the Panjab University campus will lead the UT women’s and men’s teams, respectively, in the 51st Senior National Basketball Championship. The meet will be held in Bangalore from January 5 to 12.

The teams are as follows: Women — Mandeep Kaur (capt), Kamaldeep Kaur, Sarita, Ranjeeta Rana, Manjula, Gunveen, Shruti, Babita, Inderjit Kaur, Kavita, Sandeep Kaur and Jatinder Kaur; men — Harkanwer Singh (capt), Vikas Rai, Amrish Kumar, Hartoj Singh Nagra, Harminder Singh, Ankur Sharma, Neeraj Hooda, Sohan Koundel, Dinesh Kumar, Sukhbir Singh, Mandeep Thour, Sukhbir and Malwinder Singh (standby).

Baje Singh and Manjit Singh will accompany the teams as coaches, while Mr Amarjit Singh will be the manager.

Body building championship
The Chandigarh Amateur Body Building association, Chandigarh, will hold 8th Sub-Junior and 11th Junior Mr Chandigarh Body Building Championship at DAV College, Sector 10, on January 7. According to Mr Sunil Walia the weighing- in and pre-judging will be held at 9 am and final pose down at 4 pm onwards. The age limit for sub-junior event will be below 18 years while for juniors it will be below 21 years and all the participants are requested to bring their original birth certificates. The meet will be held according to the rules of the Indian Body Building Federation.

Meet a young karate instructor
By Arvind Katyal

CHANDIGARH, Jan 1 — “Karate has given me confidence”, said black-belt holder Pankaj Sharma, a lawyer. In 1982 she joined the Karate coaching centre at the YMCA, in Sector 11 here. Her coach was Sensei P. Raghavan. Raghavan said that the initial dedication shown by Pankaj helped in mastering various styles. She was able to pick up and master all the 22 branches of the karate, particularly Ju-kumite and kata.

Since 1989, Pankaj had been winning all national titles in various championships organised by the Shaolin Shotokan karate do Federation, YMCA, Chandigarh. These included best of the best-1989-1990, best karate ka in Ju-kumite and kata-1991, best karate ka of the decade-95 and the best karate teacher at national level.

Pankaj said that it was quite rigorous to appear for the exams for the black belt (4th dan) as experts had come from the federation and videographics were sent to Japan. This degree was recognised by international karate bodies such as the British Karate Association, Bushindo kai- the Royal Karate Bodies of the Great Britain and the International Society for Okinawan and Japanese Karate -do, USA, she added. Pankaj was now serving as chief instructor at her old school, Carmel Convent, besides performing her duties as a lawyer at the Punjab and Haryana High Court after doing LLB in 1998.

Pankaj recalled that earlier fulfilment of the 2nd dan award had been highly appreciated by the President of the British Karate Association, Mas Danny Conor and the American Karate legend late Dr Bernie Weiss of ISOK (USA). Pankaj was the only female karate instructor in this part of the world and also worked as a karate expert with a commando unit of a state police force.

Academically, Pankaj always excelled and she got Vice-Chancellor’s merit award in her graduation. She was of the view that though Chandigarh witness less crimes, but the learning of karate was quite essential for any individual and more so for women. She said that since various schools of the city were quite keen to involve their students into this sport, karate has a bright future.

ADMINISTRATION

Children park on police station premises
From Our Correspondent

LALRU, Jan 1 — As a part of the initiative of the Punjab Government to make the police people-friendly, Capt Kanwaljit Singh, Finance and Planning Minister of Punjab, inaugurated a children park and a gymnasium on the premises of the Lalru police station here today.

The Punjab Police claims it to be the first park on the premises of a police station in the state which has been developed with the cooperation of local people. A youth club has also been formed by the police, following the guidelines of the Punjab Chief Minister to promote the youth of the area.

The minister said the park and the club have been formed to make the police people-friendly apart from maintaining law and order in the state. This would involve the youth in various useful activities like body building instead of allowing them to think about anti-social activities. He gave the credit to Mr H.S. Sidhu, SSP, Patiala, and Mr H.S. Bhullar, DSP, Dera Bassi, for the completion of the project within a five-month period.

Mr Sarabjit Singh, Director General of the Punjab Police, who presided over the function said the project would go a long way to strengthen the Community Policing Programme launched by the Punjab Police. He said that project would not only be an example of cooperation between the police and the public, but would also cement ties of mutual respect and affection between the police and local residents.

He informed that buildings of 22 police stations would be reconstructed for the convenience of the public and police personnel. The government has released funds for the purpose.

The police sources said the project was completed under the guidance of Mr R.S. Gill, IGP, Zone-I, and Mr Sanjiv Gupta, DIG, Patiala Range.

Earlier, Mr H.S. Bhullar, highlighted the achievements of the Lalru police and thanked the residents who helped them in making the project a success. He appealed the residents to come and join hands with the police.

Mr H.S. Sidhu, SSP, Patiala, Mr Rajiv Ahir, SP (Rural), Mr S.S. Sidhu, SDM, Dera Bassi, and other prominent persons were also present on the occasion.

Those who came forward to contribute in the project were also given commendation certificates.