The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

HEALTH

Want to become a doc at PGI? Forget parenthood!
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 26
Are you at risk of losing the right to have a child if you happen to be a resident doctor at the premiere medical institute in the region, the PGI?

Going by what the PGI Director, Prof S.K. Sharma, feels, then you better think twice before you join in as a resident doctor here, as you are expected to deny yourself the joy of parenthood, as there is no time for children. “It is more important for the Director to start evening OPD at the PGI as per the wishes of the Minister, even if we have to forsake the right to have a family,” quip the agitated resident doctors. They say that there is no such rule or clause at the PGI which bars them from having children, while doing their residency.

With the stalemate over the issue of starting evening OPDs at PGI continuing, it is these remarks of the Director that the residents should not have kids which has infuriated the doctors. “If he can go to the extent of uttering these words , then is it not amply clear that we are nothing more than pawns in the hands of PGI,” ask the resident doctors.

Taking a serious note of the Director’s remarks, made in the presence of the Union Health Secretary, Mr S.K. Naik, the PGI Association of Resident Doctors has raised serious objection to this kind of attitude of the authorities. “We agree that in our profession there is need for dedication and sincerity but that does not mean that we cannot have a family, which is every individual’s right,” say resident doctors.

“One of my colleagues, a resident in the Gynaecology Department, had joined duty within 10 days after her delivery,” says a doctor, highlighting the rigorous schedule they follow while at PGI. As if this was not enough, do they now expect us not to have a family till we are doing residency, remarks an agitated doctor.

The resident doctors who are still adamant on their stand of not joining the evening OPD duty, today said that they are still awaiting a call from the Director for resolving the issue amicably, as per the advice of the Health Secretary, Mr S.K. Naik. The executive body meeting of their association was held late last night, in which they have decided to wait for a communication from the Director’s side.

Interestingly, both the PGI authorities as well as the residents doctors are reluctant to disclose their plans in the case the stalemate continues. “With either of the two parties adopting a policy of wait and watch, it is only a day or two prior to the deadline of December 2, when evening OPD is to be launched, that a clear picture will emerge,” says a senior PGI official.

Meanwhile, the PGI Staff Council will be meeting tomorrow to discuss the issue of evening OPD. While heads of the six departments, which are to offer evening OPD services, have already prepared the roster for the duties to be assigned to resident doctors, the latter are firm on their stand of not taking the responsibility being thrust on them. “The Director will be discussing the situation arising out of the adamant stand of the resident doctors over the issue of evening OPD with the faculty members and heads of department,” remarked a senior doctor.

The PGI Director, Prof S.K. Sharma, could not be contacted despite waiting for one hour in his office. In response to a call made by a mediapersons to the Director from his cellphone, while waiting to meet him in his office, was met with a reply that he was not in his office and would be available only after 3 p.m. Within 15 minutes after this, the Director walked out of his office to leave for lunch, with mediapersons still standing outside. It appears that PGI prefers to evade the media rather than replying to their queries.

SPORTS

Roopsiran, Jannesh for title clash
Our Sports Reporter

Chandigarh, November 26
Roopsiran Rihal and Jannesh Kaur will meet each other in the under-10 girls final of the CLTA Monthly Tennis Tournament played here at the Sector 10 Tennis Stadium.

The results of today’s matches are: Boys (under-12 quarterfinal): Chetanya Verma b Parul Verma 6-0, Siddharth Singh b Gurmohit Singh 6-4, Gurinder Singh b Anmol Ladhar 6-3, Amit Chauhan b Akshat Joshi 6-4; girls (under 10- semifinal): Roopsiran Rihal b Pavit Grewal 7-1, Jannesh Kaur b Divya Joshi 7-1, boys (under-10 second round): Garry Amor Singh b Abhay Raj Puniha 6-0, Raghav Signal and Jaiveer Singh — walkover.

Football meet

The 14th Lal Bahadur Shastri Memorial Football Tournament involving prominent teams such as Garhwal Rifles, BEG, Roorkee, JCT Academy, Phagwara, DFA, Hisar, DFA, Yamunanagar, NIS, Patiala,14th GTC, Subathu, Chandigarh XI, DFA, Solan, Shimla Youngs among others will kick off tomorrow at Railway grounds, Kalka, near here. The inaugural tie will be played at 11 am. The finals will be held on December 1.

Cricket tourney

DAV School ‘A’ will take on Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 35, in the final to be held tomorrow of the UT Inter-School Cricket Tournament for Shivalik Trophy played here today at DAV Senior Secondary School grounds. In the semifinal today, DAV ‘A’ team had a narrow win over DAV ‘B’ team.

Ankit wins

Ankit created a flutter when he overpowered third seed Gagan 3-0 with scores being 48-37, 62-49, 42-40 in the junior snooker section of the XVIIth Haryana State Senior and Junior Billiards and Snooker Championships played here today at Panchkula. In other matches of the same category, Rajeev Sharma defeated Deepak 52-45,19-53, 52-19, 23-52, 54-26.

Maninder in quarterfinals

Maninder Sandhu of Chandigarh entered the quarterfinals of the under-13 section of the 59th Western India Open Squash Championship. As per reports reaching here, he beat Zahan Dastur (Mumbai) in a revengeful tie he was eagerly awaiting since losing to Zahan in the same event last year. Maninder picked the first game 9-5, and maintained his focus and energy level in the next game winning it 9-3. The third game saw Zahan put up a brave fight but besides forcing a couple of errors, could not contain a steady barrage of tight hard ‘length’ shots to the back- court mixed cleverly with cheeky drops. He won 9-6. Maninder, however, lost to Vikram Malhotra (Mumbai) 9-1, 9-0, 9-1 in the under-15 section.

Another city lad Harinder Sandhu got a walkover from Jihan Advani in the under-15 section, while Amitoj Inder Singh of Chandigarh lost to Vijay Jhangra (RIMC) 9-6, 4-9, 9-1, 4-9, 0-9 in the professional section. Harinder will meet Vikram Malhotra (Mumbai) in the under-17 quarterfinal tomorrow.

Sports programme

The UT Sports Department today organised a special sports programme to improve upon the playing conditions in the rural schools of the city. The programme under the ‘Rural Area Sports Scheme’ of the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, Government of India, was held today at Government Senior Secondary School, Dhanas. The students of the Guru Harkishan Public School, Sector 38, undertook the job to update the existing sports fields of football, handball, kho-kho, kabaddi and volleyball in the school. A team of officials of the UT Sports Department led by Mr K.S. Bharti, in charge, Youth Affairs and Sports, were also present on the occasion.

Bronze for Dr Jasjit

Dr Jasjit Singh bagged bronze medal in the singles event in the All-India Civil Services Tennis Tournament held at Indore from November 18 to 25. Dr Jasjit, a Senior Medical Officer with the Punjab Raj Bhavan, outplayed D Chandrasekhar of Andhra Pradesh 6-2, 6-1 in the semi-final. More than 100 players from the various parts of the country took part in this meet.

SGGS College win title

SGGS College, Sector 26, Chandigarh, clinched the overall championship in the Panjab University Inter-College Weightlifting Championship held here today on the PU campus. Iqbal Singh of DAV College, Sector10, Chandigarh, was adjudged ‘Mr Panjab University’ 2002-2003 in the Panjab University Inter-College Best Physique meet held today. DAV College was also declared overall champion in this meet.