HEALTH

Nurses walk miles thanks to faulty hospital design
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 4
Thanks to the faulty designing of the Nehru hospital at the PGI, nurses working here end up walking more than 3 km as they pace from one end of the long corridors to the other for attending to patients.

A former Director of the PGI, Prof B.N.S. Walia, said the faulty designing of the Nehru hospital, built in 1962, posed a lot of problems for the staff as well as the patients. “Most importantly, the design of the wards is faulty as a result of which the nurses on duty do not have full visibility for which a D-shaped ward is the most ideal,” he remarked. He said the hospital had a ward architecture where there were six beds in separate blocks.

Professor Walia, who was at the PGI to attend a seminar on hospital engineering, said the faulty designing of the Nehru hospital created a lot of problems in management and functioning. “The mile-long corridors of the hospital are the worst feature due to which the nurses and other hospital staff end up walking more than 3 km, a completely futile exercise,” he reasoned out.

He said all these inconvenient features were done away with in the Advanced Paediatric Centre, which came up later. He said the designing here ensured that the store and the treatment room were adjacent and not at two extreme ends like in the Nehru hospital.

Highlighting the importance of hospital engineering, he said a hospital was not like a public office as the peculiar needs of the patients and the health staff had to be kept in mind. Pointing out other defects in planning, he said there were very few isolation wards, which increased the chances of cross infection, which was already very high in hospitals in India.

Professor Walia said though the PGI was to be a research and teaching institute, no teaching rooms were planned and as such provision had to be made for it later by reappropriating space. He said keeping in mind all these facts it was high time that the relevance of hospital engineering was realised and the speciality developed for better patient care and health facilities.

He said even for engineering and architecture students, there was immense scope in hospital engineering.

He added that it should be mandatory for every hospital, having more than 50 beds, to have an engineering section as the air-conditioning, incinerator, oxygen unit and communication system had to be in a working condition round the clock.

Hospital engineering institute sought
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, November 4
Seeing the growing importance of specially trained hospital engineers, the Institute of Hospital Engineering (IHE) has demanded the setting up of a national institute and four regional centres for specialised training in health care services.

The recommendations made by the IHE during the first national seminar held at PGI today, includes the creation of a separate Directorate of Hospital Engineering under the Health Ministry. The President of the International Federation of Hospital Engineering, Mr Gunnar Baekken, who inaugurated the seminar said he, too, would pursue the setting up of such institutes along with international networking in hospital engineering.

The IHE, requested Mr Baekken to select the city for the setting up of a National Hospital Engineering Institute as a number of premiere institutes like the PGI, Punjab Engineering College and College of Architecture were located here. It was also decided to impress upon the Health Ministry to specify hospital engineering qualifications for engineers working in hospitals.

Highlighting the importance of technology upgradation and high degree of competence in hospital engineering, the IHE has recommended the starting of postgraduate and diploma programmes in hospital engineering and planning in various universities. The need for having a hospital equipment repair mobile workshop in every district under the Chief Medical Officer was highlighted, which could provide services to the private clinics as well.

A former PGI Director, Prof I.C.Pathak, in his address said it was essential to have specially trained engineers who have knowledge of the complex set-up of a modern day hospital. "Another area which is very important in the hospital is the installation, functioning and maintenance of sophisticated, diagnostic and therapeutic equipment which should be in a running condition round the clock," he emphasised.

A former Director of Government Medical College and Hospital, Prof V.K. Kak, said it was a must for every hospital to have a hospital engineering manual which should combine hospital engineering programme management, safety and equipment planning and environmental criteria for medical facilities and energy management. "A constant revision and updating of design, construction and maintenance is the expected from all hospital engineers and architects with inputs from both medical and non-medical experts," he stated.

The IHE also decided to seek the assistance of manufacturers of products, plant, machinery and equipment in achieving high professional standards. The delegates also felt that there was a need to build a high calibre Consultancy Cell.

SPORTS

SBOP beat Central Bank by 79 runs
Our Correspondent

In the last match of the day, the State Bank of Indore outplayed the Bank of Maharashtra by five wickets. Batting first, the Bank of Maharashtra were bowled out for 144 runs in 40.5 overs. Nandu Bamne made 44 runs, followed by Mangesh Adhatra who scored 30 runs. Yogesh Golwarkar bagged seven wickets for 43 runs. In reply, the State Bank of Indore achieved the target with five wickets in hand in 33 overs. Jatin Saxena scored unbeaten 46 runs, while Davinder Bundela made 37 runs.

Football

The Bank of India made it to the last four of the football event in the ongoing Banks Olympiad being played here at the Football grounds, Sector 17. They will now face Allahabad Bank on November 6.

The semi-final line-up for the other pool will be decided tomorrow.

In the three matches played today, the Reserve Bank of India defeated the State Bank of Hyderabad by a solitary goal scored by Arjan Ali. In another match, the Bank of India got the better of the United Bank of India by three goals to one. Velu scored two goals, while Shankar Thakur scored one goal. Sisir Ghose scored one goal for the United Bank of India. In the last match, the Bank of Baroda had a drawn match (1-1) against Punjab National Bank. Satish Singh of the Bank of Baroda scored one goal, while Bhupinder Thakur scored for Bhupinder Thakur.

Sanjay school retain football title
Our Sports Reporter

Chandigarh, November 4
Sanjay Public School, Sector 44, retained the UT Inter-School Football title for fifth time in a row by trouncing Government Model Senior Secondary School, Sector 23, by three goals to nil here today. Sanjay school boys, who were trained by Ranjit Rana, played a well-coordinated game and dominated the proceedings from the beginning. Right half Ajay Kumar was the star player for his team. Government school students put up a stiff resistance for the first 10 minutes and did not allow the rivals to make headway. Right striker Ritesh Negi engineered a move for right half Ajay Kumar in the 11th minute, who converted it into a goal.

He struck again in the 20th minute with a solo effort. After the lemon break, Kuldeep Singh scored the third goal in 48th minute, which sealed the fate of the Government school team.

Boxing tourney

Sandeep Yadav won first place in the bantam weight category in the Panjab University Inter-College Boxing Championship played here today at University campus. Sandeep outplayed Arshdeep Singh 3-0. Sohan Rawat beat Jatinder Singh and Rakesh defeated Sanjeev Saini in the feather weight section. In light weight section, Mohd Habib defeated Vineet Kumar, Dharam Singh beat Mewal Singh, while Sunil Sharma defeated Sukhraj Singh. In the light welter weight section, Gurbir Singh beat Ravinder Singh, Harjeet Kumar defeated Gurpal Singh and Dinesh Kumar defeated Raj Kumar.

In welter weight section, Ajay Singh beat Amandeep Singh, while Gaurav Sharma defeated Sanjeev Kumar. In light middle weight section, Tejender Singh and Gurpreet Singh outplayed their respective opponents, Daljit Singh and Ashish Mehal. In middle weight section, Dharminder beat Bhupinder Singh. In heavy weight section, Sarbuland Singh won by beating Bhupinder Banga and Jarnail Singh defeated Sarbjeet Singh. In fly weight section, Prem Rawat defeated Giandeep Singh, while Aman Kumar outplatyed Ajay Pal.

Selection trials

The Chandigarh Amateur Cycling Association will hold selection trials for the Chandigarh cycling team for its participation in the national track cycling championship to be held in Ludhiana from November 23 to 27. The cyclists will be selected in sub-junior under 12 and under 14 sections, juniors in below 16 and 18 sections and seniors boys and girls. These trials will be held on November 9 at 6.30 am at the Lake Club.

Selected

Deepankar Sharda of Sanjay Public School, Sector 44, has been selected as one of the probables for the World Schools Football Tournament to be held at Shanghai (China) from November 16. Sixteen-year-old Deepankar has represented Chandigarh five times in the national school games.

Cricket meet

The UT Cricket Association will hold the Annual Inter-School Cricket Tournament in below 13 section for St Kabir Trophy at Cricket Stadium, Sector 16. The matches will be held on November 11 and 12. Boys born on or after January 1,1991 or students of Class VII will be eligible to participate in the tournament. Entries close on November 8 at the Stadium.

J&K trail by 113 runs
Our Sports Reporter

Chandigarh, November 4
Jammu and Kashmir were 184 runs for the loss of five wickets at the end of the second day’s play in the North Zone Cooch Behar (under19) Cricket Tournament being played at the J.R. Institute of Cricket Technology, Barwala, near here. This was in response to Haryana’s first innings total of 297 runs. J&K were still 113 runs behind.

Earlier in the morning, Ranchal Chaudhary of Haryana was shown the pavilion by the J&K. However, Mandeep Singh went on to make 96 runs.

Brief scores: Haryana: 297 runs all out (Mandeep 96, Mahesh Rawat 63, Sachin Rana 23; Abid Nabi 3 for 58, Sohan Lal 3 for 46, Sumit 3 for 37).

J&K: 184 runs for five (Ravi Pandit 51,Virmesh Kaur 42, Mayank 26 n.o.; Mandeep 3 for 32).

ADMINISTRATION

Mohali council reluctant to take over parks
Kulwinder Sangha

SAS Nagar, November 4
Parks in the town have turned into “unwanted property” with one agency keen on handing these over, but the other showing reluctance by spelling out certain conditions.

The Punjab Urban Planning and Development Authority (PUDA) has developed more than 150 parks in various sectors of the town and has been asking the Municipal Council to take these over for maintenance, but the latter finds itself in a dilemma because it may not be able to generate required funds needed for the purpose. Apart from spelling out conditions for taking over these parks from time to time, the council has now sought funds from PUDA for their maintenance.

The issue of handing over the parks to the council has been hanging fire for a long time. The plan had so far not materialised for one reason or the other.

Sources say that according to a list prepared by PUDA, there are 166 small and big parks in Sectors 48 to 65 of the town which it wanted to hand over to the council.

The total area covered by these parks is about 153 acre. It is learnt that PUDA authorities also wanted to hand over 84 employees engaged for maintaining these parks to the civic body.

According to sources, the civic body had refused to take these employees on the ground that it would get the maintenance work done on contract basis. The council also wanted that PUDA should hand over the parks in a phased manner after completing the work in these parks as per original estimates. The civic body also wanted that PUDA should hand over the entire sector for maintenance instead of handing over the area in bits and parts.

After a meeting held in the office of the Additional Chief Administrator, PUDA, in September which was attended, among others, by the council President, Mr Kulwant Singh and the Executive Officer, Mr H.B. Garg, it was decided to hand over the parks in Sectors 53 to 56.

PUDA officials say that parks in these sectors, along with a number of green belts, are ready for handing over to the civic body after a joint inspection by officials of both agencies.

Mr Kulwant Singh said here today that the civic body had no objection in taking over the parks, provided PUDA was able to provide financial help in that regard.

He said the council’s only source of income was octroi and in case the government abolished it, it would become very difficult for the civic body to carry out maintenance of the parks.

He said the council also had to maintain vacant plots in the developed sectors even though PUDA collected extension fee from allottees who had failed to carry out construction on their plots. He said the council had been urging higher authorities to direct PUDA to give 75 per cent of the amount collected as extension fee to the civic body as was being done by HUDA in Panchkula.

Revised electoral rolls by Nov 17

Chandigarh, November 4
The UT Election Department will publish revised electoral roll by November 17. A copy of the rolls will be supplied to the Assistant Electoral Registration Officers (AEROs) concerned for publication on November 15.

Claims and objections will be invited from the public at the designated locations from November 17 to December 8. The special campaign dates will be December 6 and 7.

A meeting regarding the summary revision of electoral rolls was held today where the Electoral Registration Officer-cum-Deputy Commissioner, Chandigarh, Mr Arun Kumar, issued instructions. The area and number of polling stations set up during the last revision had been changed due to the rationalisation of polling stations. As per guidelines of the Commission, the draft publication of electoral roll had to be published in the revised list of electoral roll. On the administrative front, the Election Department would supply staff list of the employees of the Chandigarh Administration for working on this duty. The concerned AERO’s would appoint the staff.

The AEROs present in the meeting included, Mr Ashwani Kumar, Assistant Estate Officer, Mr S.P. Arora, DPR, UT, Mr Arun Sekhri, Asstt. Commissioner, MC, Mr Naresh Narwal, SDM(E), Ms Madhavi Kataria, SDM(S), Mr N.S. Brar, Chief General Manager, CITCO, Mr Kulwant Kumar Kalson, Joint Commissioner, MC, Mr H.S. Kandhola, Joint Director (Admn), GMCH-32, Mr O.P. Popli, Director, CTU, Mr Gurdip Singh, Director Social Welfare and Mr D.S. Mangat, DPI (Schools), UT, Chandigarh. TNS