HEALTH

X-ray succeeded where MRI failed
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 11
Doctors may recommend MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) in complicated cases, considering it to be the ultimate test, but, in a rare case, a simple X-ray proved to be more reliable than the sophisticated and expensive MRI test.

An MRI done on 8-year-old Harit Mehta failed to detect the presence of a glass piece lodged in his knee joint for almost a year, even though the X-ray report indicated a fractured fragment. The X-ray report and the MRI report were contradictory, which caused a delay in treatment.

“I was surprised to find a piece of glass (2x1 cm) lodged in the knee joint, as I was looking for a bone fragment,” said Dr Vikas Mehra, an orthopaedician who successfully operated upon Harit Mehta at the Chandigarh Medical Centre (CMC). The arthroscopic keyhole knee surgery had been performed without opening the knee joint, said Dr Mehra.

“It was last year that Harit injured his knee after he slipped and fell on a cola bottle, but, for almost a year he had no problem,” said Ms Suman Mehta, surprised that such a simple procedure had solved the problem of her son who could not even move his leg for the past two months.

“I dread to think of the damage the glass piece could have caused to my son’s knee. A month’s delay in his surgery was caused because the MRI report had failed to show the piece ,” says Mr R.D. Mehta, a bank official. “Some doctors had even recommended that we consulted the doctor who was treating Sachin Tendulkar at Mumbai, for which, we would have had to spend almost Rs 80,000. The entire cost of the surgery at the CMC has worked out to be Rs 12,000.”

Dr Mehra, said that the glass piece could have damaged an artery and the boy could have lost his knee. “Though while removing the glass piece multiple damage has been caused to the cartilage, it will heal up soon,” said Dr Mehta. “In my long career, I have never come across a case where the MRI had failed to detect a foreign body, while the X-ray had shown a fractured fragment,” said a surprised Dr Mehra.

State govts ‘responsible’ for low nurse-patient ratio
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, May 11
The hospital authorities blame the state government for the miserably low nurse-patients ratio in government hospitals which is affecting quality patient care.

Though the nursing staff norms laid down by the Union Government put the nurse-patient ratio for special wards at 1:4 and 1:6 for general ward, but the actual strength in most of the hospitals would exceed 50 patients being attended to by one nurse.

“The quality of nursing services is definitely affected due to this imbalance but the fault lies with the state governments as health is a state subject,” remarked Mr Dileep Kumar, Nursing Adviser to the Union Government. He said since 18,000 to 20,000 nurses were being trained at different institutes in the country annually, as such there was no shortage of trained staff and it was due to the paucity of funds that the government was unable to create posts and fill up the existing vacancies.

Mr Dileep Kumar stated that Rs 100 crore had been allocated for the nursing sector and it was for the state governments to take on the responsibility as the centre could only provide supplementary help.

Mr Dileep Kumar, who is here in connection with the International Nursing Day celebrations at the PGI tomorrow, said the situation was, however, improving as it was for the first time that nursing finds mention in the latest National Health Policy document.” Apart from focussing on training more graduate nurses, the Indian Nursing Council (INC) has decided to convert all diploma nursing schools into colleges in a phased manner,” he elaborated.

Special focus would be laid on training specialised nurses for ICU, the neonatal ward and paediatrics.” Since the government has no qualms about Indian nurses exploring greener pastures abroad, we have set up two Commissioned Graduates for Foreign Nursing students (CGFNS) institutes at Bangalore and Cochin so that they do not have to go to Dubai or Pakistan to clear the exam,” he clarified.

Sore at the stepmotherly treatment being meted out to nursing professionals in India, a number of retired Nursing Superintendents and those presently working at premiere institutes like AIIMS, PGI, NIMHANS and CMC, Vellore, felt that the Nursing Superintendents were never involved in policy-making decisions or assessing the nurse requirement for any ward.

Sanitation services to be privatised in General Hospital
Ruchika M. Khanna
Tribune News Service

Panchkula, May 11
Haryana will privatise sanitation and cleanliness services in General Hospital here. Sources in the Health Department said a communique to this effect was received from the Finance Department. While over 50 posts of medical officer and paramedic staff have been approved by the Finance Department, the Health Department has been asked to give sanitation and cleanliness services in the hospital to a private agency on contract basis. The contract would be given by the Civil Surgeon, Panchkula, after inviting tenders, informed a senior officer in Health Department.

Local health authorities had requested the state government to sanction over 100 posts, ever since the General Hospital here was upgraded from a 50-bed to 150-bed hospital in October last year.

A request for nine senior medical officers (SMO’s) , one matron, 26 staff nurses, two radiographers, one dental surgeon, five house surgeons, four nursing sisters, four pharmacists, three lab technicians and over 50 Class IV employees and ministerial staff had been made by the department.

All above mentioned posts have now been okayed by the Finance Department. Sources said while most of these posts would be filled by way of transfers from outside, the Health Department would have to write to the state government for filling the remaining posts (if any) by way of fresh recruitment ( Class I and II posts by the Haryana Public Service Commission and Class III posts by the Subordionate Services Selection Board).

After the new building was constructed and the hospital upgraded to 150-bed last year, this has been functioning with skeletal staff. As of now, the hospital has staff sanctioned for a 50-bed hospital (six SMOs, 28 medical officers, two dental surgeons, 20 staff nurses, one radiographer, 12 pharmacists and eight lab technicians). With the out patient department (OPD) attendance having increased to almost double the existing staff is feeling the heat in dealing with the heavy inflow of patients.

SPORTS

Chandigarh emerge winners
Our Sports Reporter

Chandigarh, May 11
Chandigarh were declared winners on the basis of their first innings lead in the three-day Punjab Inter-district Under-17 Cricket Tournament which came to a close this evening at PCA Stadium, SAS Nagar.

In reply to Chandigarh’s huge first innings total of 255 for the loss of nine wickets, which saw an unbeaten 106 runs by Uday Kaul, Minor District could score 184 runs for the loss of seven wickets in their second innings. Digvijay made 92 runs, while Varun Sharma scored 34 runs. Naresh bagged three wickets, while Gurkirath took two wickets for Chandigarh. Earlier in their first innings, Minor District team scored 177 runs.

Cricket tourney

Prudential Cricket Club outplayed IC-XI by 36 runs in division ‘A’ match of the VIIth UT League Cricket Tournament for Kinetic Trophy played here today. Imran Khan and Vipin ‘Senior’ slammed 41 and 37 runs, respectively. Prudential Cricket Club scored 210 runs in 35 overs.

Brief scores: Prudential CC: 210 all out in 34.2 overs (Imran Khan 41, Vipin ‘Senior’ 37, Davinder Handa 29, Mohd Ali 29, Gautam Sharma 5 for 35, Kanwardeep 2 for 23). ICC-XI: 174 all out in 33.3 overs (Sanjeev 42, Ramandeep 33, Pardeep 24, Mukesh Pidda 4 for 20, Deepak 2 for 38, Rohit 2 for 40).

In division ‘C’ matches played, Blue Star-XI beat Nestle-XI by 117 runs, Palsora Cricket Club defeated CCET-XI by 182 runs, Garhwal Cricket Club beat Ekta-XI by six wickets, Elite Cricket Club beat Harmukh Cricket Club by 61 runs, Competent-XI beat ESTESA-XI by four wickets, while Haryana Tourism-XI defeated Paul-XI by six wickets.

U-19 cricket team

The Mohali Cricket Association will hold selection trials for under-19 team on May 13 from 3 pm onwards at MCA grounds, SAS Nagar. The team will take part in the Inter-district Cricket Tournament to be organised by the Punjab Cricket Association for Dhruv PandoveTrophy. The players should be less than 19 years of age as on September 1, 2003. This was stated by Mr G.S. Walia, secretary of the association.

Selection trials

The Amateur Throwball Association of Chandigarh will conduct selection trials on May 15 at 5 pm at Shishu Niketan Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 22. The selected players will take part in the Junior National Throwball Championship to be held at Allahabad from May 28 to May 31. The players in below-18 age group must report half an hour earlier.

Snooker meet

Anandit Joshi upset state No 1 Sandeep Duggal 4-3 to win the snooker final in the IVth Saurav Khatar Memorial Snooker and Billiards Championships at the Chandigarh Club this evening.

In the billiards final, Sandeep Duggal beat Sandeep Singh Chadha 250-215 to clinch the title. TNS