HEALTH

2 ultrasound machines seized
Our Correspondent

SAS Nagar, March 9
In a bid to check female foeticide, two unregistered ultrasound machines were seized from private medical premises by a team of government doctors here today.

Dr Rana Harinder, Appropriate Authority under the PNDT Act and Ropar Civil Surgeon, who headed the team, said the machines had not been registered with either the local Civil Hospital or the Ropar health authorities. These were seized from the premises of two doctors.

The raiding team included Dr V.K. Goel, member of the state advisory committee constituted under the PNDT Act, Dr A.K. Khullar, Appropriate Authority for SAS Nagar subdivision, and Dr Jai Singh, officiating SMO of the local Civil Hospital.

Need for uniform standard in clinical labs
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 9
The need for accreditation and quality standards in clinical testing laboratories in order to improve the standard of health and management of illness and disease in India was emphasised during a press conference organised by Speciality Ranbaxy Limited (SRL) here today.

Giving figures, Dr Sumedha Sahni, Director, Operations, SRL, stated that out of the total labs in the country, only 11 labs were accredited and conformed to the required quality standards and approximately over 98-98.5per cent people got their tests done at non-accredited laboratories. “In order to promote better health in India, we strongly feel that the government should take a strict action against those labs which do not conform to the minimum required quality standards and are managed by unqualified people”, she said.

Speaking on the occasion Mr Vidur Kaushik, Chief Executive Officer, SRL, said that at present, the mode of operations of the majority of clinical testing laboratories in India circumvented the necessity for strict adherence to quality, which was a cause of great concern for the well-being of people. In order to ensure effective treatment of patients through correct diagnosis and to promote better health in the country, it was mandatory for all diagnostic labs to obtain accreditation to National Accreditation Board for Testing and Calibration Laboratories (NABL) and to conform to the Good Clinical Practices (GCP) and the Good Laboratory Practices (GLP) guidelines. “Being India’s very first NABL-accredited laboratory, we strongly feel that there is a need to ensure all clinical testing laboratories in India to obtain accreditation from NABL, and comply and maintain at least the basic and relevant quality standards,” he said.

Dr B.N.S. Walia, former Director, PGI, gave examples from his experience of medicine and stressed the need for correct tests and reports in order to be able to diagnose the exact cause of the disease and then treat it.

Dialysis unit inaugurated at GH-16
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 9
The Director, PGI, Dr S.K. Sharma inaugurated the dialysis unit at General Hospital, Sector 16, here today. The General Hospital will be the third government hospital in the city to provide patients of kidney failure with the facility of dialysis at minimum possible rates. The PGI and the GMCH-32 already have this facility.

Speaking on the occasion, the PGI director stated that starting of such a facility in the city would reduce the burden on PGI’s Department of Nephrology. Dr Rameshwar Chander, Director Health Services, UT, stated that although the GH-16 was a civil hospital it was moving ahead in providing tertiary level services to its patients.

The machine which has cost the hospital Rs 12 lakh was installed on January 25 in the hospital and has conducted more than 50 successful dialysis procedures till date. The cost of each dialysis is a nominal Rs 50. The first dialysis costs the patient Rs 1,200 while the next two Rs 150 each.

Dialysis is a must to sustain life in case of patients with kidney failure. A patient who decides to get a transplant operation done also has to resort to dialysis to be able to be operated upon. Many patients who are not able to get a matching kidney have to depend on dialysis to survive. Also the transplant operation costs more than Rs 5 lakh and those who cannot afford it rely on dialysis.

Dr R.S. Sandhu, in charge of this unit, stated that there were more than 80 dialysis being done in the city in the government and private sectors and still there are people waiting for their turn. “Seeing the response one feels that there is a major need for this facility. Patients are in queue waiting for their turn for dialysis. Since each patient needs to get dialysis done twice every week, more machines are needed. We have all the infrastructure and two more machines can easily be accommodated,” he said.

SPORTS

Sabeeha on cloud nine
Arvind Katyal

Chandigarh, March 9
Sabeeha Dhillon could not have asked for more. The reason for her momentous celebration; only last Monday, she received a letter from the National Rifle Association of India (NRAI) on her selection for the Indian senior women shooting team for two prestigious International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup shooting meets. Sabeeha had only recently bagged honours by securing bronze medal in 10 metre Air Rifle event in the 31st National Games at SAS Nagar in senior section, when she shot 393/400. The two seniors ahead of her were Olympian Anjali Ved Pathaka and Anuja Tere.

When this morning this reporter talked to Sabeeha, the 18-year-old local MCM DAV College student, she had returned from her coaching class of sociology as she was preparing for her final examinations. She said the news had infused more confidence in her and she was happy that the NRAI had realised her potential by selecting her for this World Cup, which would be considered to be the qualifying mark for the 2004 Athens Olympics.

Sabeeha practises for nearly four hours at her 10-metre shooting range at her Sector 33 residence. She said just after the National Games in November last, when she was selected for the European Circuit in February 2002, she had prepared hard for the same. When the Government of India did not clear her name, she had felt dejected for a while. Her parents, specially her father, Iqbal Singh Dhillon, a reputed shooter, who had never let her down, had motivated her by asking her to be regular in practice by saying that more was to come from her performance in the future.

Sabeeha shot to limelight in 1999, when she was crowned National Junior Champion in 10 metre Air Rifle and was close second in senior women section, when Anjali Ved Pathak had won the title. She had later represented India in the World Cup at Atlanta.

Cricket euphoria

The day-night one day cricket match to be held tomorrow at the PCA Stadium, SAS Nagar, evoked a good response in the city and its nearby areas, with ticket seekers equalling complimentary pass seekers. ‘This region had a culture of not spending from the pocket on the purchase of tickets, though people spent lavishly on cocktail parties and excursions, confided a senior sports official. The interest among students was too much to be believed, though Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag were not playing.

Annual sports meet at GMCH-32
Our Correspondent

Chandigarh, March 9
Doctors and students of the Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32, today were attired in track-suits and their overall were missing. The occasion was the 9th Annual Sports Meet of the college which began with a march past by the students of the college at the Sports Complex, Sector 46. The meet was inaugurated by Dr S.B.S Mann, Director Principal of the Government Medical College. Following are the results of the various sports competitions held today:

The results in order of position: 1500 mts race (boys) — Vanesh Chauhan, Gurbakshish and Vinod; Shot put (girls) — Ivreet, Rajni and Minal; Discus Throw (boys) — Hemant, Abhinav and Gurbakshish; Discus throw (Faculty) Men — Dr. C.S Gautam, Dr. Sanjay D’Cruz and Mr H.S Kandhola; Discus throw (faculty) women — Dr Mini, Dr Birinder and Dr Manjula; Shot Put (staff) — Baljit Singh, Neeraj Sharma and Surinder Singh; Long jump — Tina, Ritu and Minal; Javelin throw (boys) — Hemant, Himanshu and Ravjot; 200 mts race (girls) — Tina Kocchar, Manpreet and Ivreet; High jump (boys) — Amit Kansal, Hemant Bhardwaj and Gurbakshish Singh; 400 mts race (girls) — Manpreet, Ivreet and Ritu; Long jump (boys) — Hemant, Manish and Gangandeep; Discus throw (girls) — Rajni, Guneet and Tina; 200 mts race (faculty) — Prof. Arjun Dass, Dr. Subhash Singh and Dr. Rajeev Kumar; Shot Put (faculty) — Prof. A.S Bawa, Dr. C.S Gautam and Dr. Ajay Dabra; Shot put (boys) — Hemant, Ravjot and Vikas; High jump (girls) — Ritu, Neeta and Manpreet; 400 mts race (boys) — Avisham, Veeraish and Gurbakhshish; the Tub of war competition between faculty and students was won by the faculty members.

MC notice to cablemen on pending dues
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, March 9
The Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh (MCC) here yesterday issued a 15-day notice to 80 small cable operators to deposit their dues pending since December 1999 with the corporation.

The recovery from cable operators is estimated to bring around Rs 27.54 lakh to the corporation. Rest of the cable operators estimated to be around 100 will be served notices in the next lot. The MCC had decided to levy a charge of Rs 1000 per sector per month on small operators and Rs 1 lakh per month on multi-system operators (MSOs).

The MSOs went to the court against the decision of the Municipal Corporation whose Finance and Contract Committee (F&CC) had reduced their charge from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 20,000 subsequently. The reduction of rate by the F&CC has yet not been approved by the House.