HEALTH

An ailing Civil Hospital
Shivani Bhakoo

Ludhiana, June 4
The local Civil Hospital, also known as Lord Mahavira Civil Hospital, is in a sorry state in terms of infrastructure and also because of catering to the needs of almost twice the number of patients it can attend to.

In this 100-bed hospital, there are more patients than its capacity at any given time the situation being grossly inadequate to deal with emergencies. Doctors admit that all is not well here, but add they cannot do much under the prevailing circumstances.

Rajesh (6) met with an accident recently and fractured his right leg. His father said: “The staff treat us as slaves. I am a migrant labourer. I cannot afford to get my child treated from some other hospital, so I have to put up with this. The hospital has no stretchers, no attendants. Even if the attendants are there, they care a damn. I have to carry my son on my shoulders for tests and X-rays. I hope that he is discharged from this place soon.”

Mr Shiv Ram Saroay, a social worker and president of Vishwa Guru Ravidas Mission while talking to Ludhiana Tribune, revealed that a resident of Jammu Colony, Jyoti, along with her two minor sons, Atul (3) and Jeetu (8-month-old) had been admitted to the hospital in a serious condition yesterday. She had suffered 70 per cent burns and both her sons were 90 per cent burnt. “The woman and both her children died today. They were not given proper care. There was no provision to treat them separately,” said Mr Saroay.

Manjit Kaur, an old lady who is accompanying her grand daughter (a burns patient) complained that they were shifted to the verandah yesterday as there was no vacant bed in the ward.”I am surprised at the treatment given here to the patients. They treat us as animals. We are not given personal care. The nursing staff and the doctors speak to us in a very rude manner. There are no separate male and female wards,” she pointed out.

Another patient, who suffered from a fracture in his left leg, complained, “I had come here yesterday also for my X-ray. Some raids were being conducted by the police in the hospital so I had to wait for hours. By the time the raids were over, I was told that due to a power cut in the hospital, the X-ray would be done tomorrow.”

A member of the nursing staff, on condition of anonymity, disclosed that this was ‘normal’ at the hospital. She added, “Sometimes, when there is rush, we combine the male and female wards. The management in the hospital is poor, but no one really bothers. The staff believes that since only economically-weaker section patients are admitted to the hospital and they cannot ‘harm’ them in any way.”

It may be mentioned that the hospital has the latest infrastructure, testing equipment and medical specialists in different fields like medicine, skin, gynaecology and surgery.

The Senior Medical Officer (SMO), Dr Jitender Kaur, was on leave today and she could not be contacted. Dr Subhash Batta, the officiating SMO, when contacted, admitted that the hospital had surplus patients everyday. “We have a two-room burn unit and only four patients can be adjusted there. In case there are more admissions, we adjust them in the general wards. We can only do dressing of the burn patients and a majority of patients with burn injuries are brought in a serious condition. We have a 100-bed hospital, but each day, the admissions cross 120, so how can we adjust all the patients? We have one generator and make use of it in case of an emergency. There was some electricity problem yesterday which was rectified by the evening, so the patients were asked to come again”, was the explanation provided by him.

PCMS doctors hold rally
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, June 4
In the wake of a statewide agitation of PCMS doctors and in response to the call given by the PCMS Association to hold ‘Jan-Chetna’ rallies at district headquarters, the PCMS association’s local unit held one such rally at the Civil Surgeon’s office today.

Doctors are agitating against the move of the Punjab Government to terminate the PCMS batch comprising 872 doctors selected during the tenure of Chairman Ravi Sidhu and the move of the government to abolish NPA (non-practising allowance) from their pay.

The rally was addressed by PCMS Association state president, Dr Hardeep Singh, Dr Balwinder Kumar, general secretary of the District PCMSA. Dr Manjeet Singh, executive member and Dr Puneet Girdhar, state president, Dental Wing (PCMSA).

Addressing the rally, Dr Hardeep Singh said there was allegation against the 872 PCMS doctors recruited during Ravi Sidhu’s tenure. Doctors were professionally qualified and had passed through many steps such as qualifying the PMT, the professional degree test, postgraduate entrance test, even a test for PPSC selection and an interview by a board of medical experts. He said these doctors were not at the mercy of Ravi Sidhu as almost one-third of these had been selected against the will of Ravi Sidhu, by an order of the high court. 

SPORTS

Campus club win
Our Sports Reporter

Ludhiana, June 4
Campus Club beat Riat Club to lift the trophy in the Second Friendship Cricket Tournament organised by the Gujranwala Guru Nanak Khalsa College, Ludhiana on its grounds yesterday, according to a press note issued by the officiating principal of the college, Mr Gurdip Singh. The winners received a cash prize of Rs 2,100 and a trophy. As many as 16 teams participated in this tournament.

Harpal Singh was declared the player of the tournament, while Avtar Singh Shera was adjudged the best bowler. Navdeep Singh won the best batsman prize and Jasgeet Singh was named the best wicket-keeper. Manpreet Singh and Harpreet Singh shared the fielder trophy, while Babbar Kailey was named the best all-rounder.

Martial arts camp

A free martial arts training camp is being organised by the National Academy of Karate Champion, Dragon Tiger Chinese Martial Art in association with Ludhiana Traditional Taikwando Academy from today at Rakh Bagh here. As many as 75 students from different schools are attending this camp, which will culminate on June 16.aWhile inaugurating the camp, Mr Gurdip Singh, ex-Superintendent, ESD, Kankinara, called upon the students to learn martial arts as it would help them know how to defend themselves.