HEALTH

ESI Hospital short of funds
Our Correspondent

SAS Nagar, May 22
Although there has been some improvement in the services at ESI Hospital here, it is facing shortage and much more needs to be done to provide better patient care.

The 30-bed ESI Hospital is facing shortage of X-ray films, some laboratory reagents and stationery.

Printed material like OPD tickets and indoor files are also in short supply. Pages of notebooks are being used to meet such requirements.

Although indoor patients are provided food by the hospital, the diet is not according to norms. There is no canteen facility and attendants of patients have to go to the nearby market for food.

There are 11 sanctioned posts of doctors, but there has been no eye specialist for the past eight months. Eye patients have to be referred to the Civil Hospital. A surgeon was transferred recently and the post had not been filled till May 20.

Dr S.S. Walia, SMO, in charge of the hospital, said the position with regard to medicines was “comfortable”. As soon as funds were received, better diet would be given to the indoor patients.

Dr Walia said tenders for running the canteen had been given twice but the response was not as desired.

He said reimbursement cases which were pending since 1996 had been settled. In the recent past, patients’ bills totalling about Rs 14 lakh had been cleared. Bills amounting to around Rs. 1.10 lakh of a heart patient, Mr Varinder Kumar of Phase-I, had been reimbursed.

Dr Walia said the average bed occupancy rate of the hospital for the year 2001-2002 was 56 per cent which was considered to be a good percentage.

Nearly 400 patients visited the two ESI dispensaries, located in Phase-II and on the premises of the hospital, every day. However, the figure was likely to decrease as factories were being closed down.

Dr Walia said last year, a leprosy clinic was opened at the hospital. Thirtysix cases had been detected so far. Medicines were provided at the clinic, though earlier patients had to get these from the Civil Hospital.

Mr Saudagar Singh Grewal, a member of the ESI Hospital Committee, said though there was improvement in the hospital services but much more needed to be done for the patients. He said hospital authorities had cleared almost all reimbursement bills which were below Rs 1,000. However, there were some pending bills for amounts above Rs 1,000.

Dr Meenal heads UT’s first menopausal clinic
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 22
Dr (Mrs) Meenal Kumar, a senior gynaecologist of the UT Administration, who has become the first head of the menopausal clinic of the UT, has launched a movement to provide public health education to women approaching or passing through a long phase of menopausal zone.

It is well known that long period of menopausal zone brings with it a lot of avoidable distress, gloom, misery, helplessness and serious health hazards to most women in their midlife. Dr Meenal, who is now Senior Medical Officer in charge at Civil Dispensary, Sector 20, Chandigarh, knows it more than others do, since she has herself suffered immensely due to menopausal complications. However, the disabilities suffered by her gave her new strength and new insight to offer empowerment to her patients as well as other menopausal women. In recognition of her dedication to the cause of menopause and her capacity to offer holistic and comprehensive care to such women, whose number is over 1 lakh in Chandigarh city alone, she was directed by the Director, Health Services, to head the first menopausal clinic of UT.

A book entitled Woman’s Health after Menopause written by her and with a foreword by Ms Neeru Nanda, Adviser to the Administrator, was released by Dr Rameshwar Chander, Director, Health Service, recently.

SPORTS

Softball team gears up for national meet
Our Sports Reporter

Chandigarh, May 22
A 16-member Chandigarh sub-junior boys softball team is preparing hard at the Dev Samaj College for Women, Sector 45, where the two-week state camp is in progress.

They will take part in the National Sub-Junior Softball Championship to be held at Hyderabad from May 28.

The camp would conclude on May 25 and they will leave on May 28, said Balwinder Singh Bedi, coach in charge of the camp.

Mr Bedi said the Chandigarh Amateur Softball Association had arranged this camp. Last year, the UT secured fourth place and they were hoping to perform much better this time, he added. He said two players, Shailinder Singh and Parminder Singh, had previously represented the UT in the nationals. The average age group of the team is 13.

The players are: Ranjat Rana, Aseem, Gagneet Singh, Keshav Pratap, Siddharth Banerjee, Manbir Singh, Shailendra, Parminder, Munish Rana, Vijay Rana, Rupesh, Ravinder, Anubhav, Jasmeet Singh, Sohluman Gill and Tajeshwar Singh.

Carrom association announces annual calendar
Our Sports Reporter

Chandigarh, May 22
The Chandigarh Carrom Association has announced its annual Calendar of the activities to be conducted during the current year. The summer coaching camp will be held from May 25 to June 8, 2002, Raj Kumar Babuta Memorial Prize Money Ranking Meet from June 29 to July 1 ,2002, and St Stephens’ carrom ranking meet from July 28 to July 30, 2002.

A ‘clinic’ on laws of carrom will be held from August 11, 2002. The state carrom tournament from August 31 to September 4, 2002. Besides above, the association has also been allotted the 31st junior national and inter-state carrom championship by the All-India Carrom Federation which will be conducted in October, 2002, at Chandigarh.

Mr Mahesh Sekhri, general secretary of the association said the association has also decided to conduct the inter -school carrom championship in three categories [up to Class 5 from Class VI to VIII and open category) and inter-institution carrom meet in November and January 2003.

UT teams will also take part in zonal, national and test series.

Chess meet

The Chandigarh Chess Association will hold a chess meet to select a UT team of four players to take part in the National ‘B’ Chess Championship-2002 to be held at Jalandhar. The selections will be made from June 1 to 3 at Jawahar Navodya Vidyalaya, Sector 25. Entries close with Dr Vipnesh Bhardwaj at Phone-746078 on May 31.

Cricket tourney

The Punjab Secretariat Cricket Club and Chandigarh Sports club topped their respective pools while Stadium XI and Inde-Dutch XI finished at number two, to qualify for the semi-finals of the ‘B’ Division league of the VIth UT league Cricket Tournament. According to press release of the UT Cricket Association, the semi-finals will be of 35 overs each and would be played on May 26. BBMB XI and District Panchkula Coaching Centre will play each other in the finals of the C division league to be played at DAV Senior Secondary School, Sector 8 on May 26.

Mixed response to new scoring system
Our Correspondent

Chandigarh, May 22
The switching over back to the old system of scoring in badminton has evoked mixed reactions among city badminton experts and former players. Majority of them has, however, supported the move which could be possible due to the dominance of the Asian badminton over the European.

It may be recalled that few days ago, the decision was taken by the International Badminton Federation (IBF) at its council meeting held at Guangzhou (China). The Badminton Association of India (BAI) has also asked its affiliated units to adopt the 5x7 system in all its district to national-level tournaments.

D.K. Mukerjee, founder member of the Chandigarh Badminton Association, said the presence of top ranked players in the Asian continent had put the pressure on the IBF during the past one year when the system was announced for experimentation. He, however, liked the proposition to change the women doubles and even mixed doubles to 3x11 points from the old format of 3x15 , which would help in matches for these events ending early.

Mr T.P.S. Puri, former chief national badminton coach, was of the view that world ranked players were finding it difficult to adjust to the new format which mainly was re-introduced to make the sport market-savvy.

Liquor rates: hotel asked to remove banner
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 22
The UT Excise and Taxation Department has asked a Sector-35 hotel to remove a banner displaying discount rates of liquor being served in the hotel.

The department is also looking into the unprecedented discounts being offered by the hotel on liquor prices. Sources say that the hotel cannot sell liquor at rates less than the minimum fixed under the Excise policy. A challan can be issued for putting up such banners.

A special meeting of liquor vend owners of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh is also on the cards to keep tabs on the slashing of rates.