Ludhiana, February 9
The government dispensary in New Shivpuri locality here organised an outreach immunisation camp-cum -declamation contest at Gurdwara Kabir Nagar in collaboration with the New Ekta Welfare Society, yesterday.

The eligible children (from 0-16 years) were immunised against diseases like polio, DPT, BCG, measles and tetanus.

The camp was inaugurated by Dr Rajinder Kaur, Civil Surgeon, while Mr Ashok Makkar, Member of the Rogi Kalyan Committee of the Health Department presided over it. Sixtyfive doses of vaccine were administered in the camp.

In the declamation contest, students of Master Tara Singh Memorial College, SDP Senior Secondary School, Rameshwar Public School and Government Senior Secondary School, Sekhewal, spoke on several topics including female foeticide and importance of health education for youth.

Dr Kuldeep Kaur, District Immunisation Officer and Dr Amita Jain, Medical Officer, among others were present at the occasion.

The first prize (Rs 300) was bagged by Mani of Master Tara Singh College, second prize (Rs 200) was shared by Mehrool Bhardwaj of SDP Senior Secondary School, Ludhiana and Pooja Saini of Rameshwar Public School and the third prize went to Sandeep Kaur of Government School, Sekhewal.

The prizes were awarded by Mr Gurmel Singh, DSP, Jalandhar. Various volunteers who had helped the government dispensary in successfully organising the function and various pulse polio camps, were also given commendation certificates by Mr Ashok Makkar.

The function was attended by staff of Health Department, teachers and prominent residents in large numbers.

Ludhiana, February 9
“Mobile health care services can help a large number of people, specially in a country like India where high quality medical care is not accessible in remote areas.” These observations were made by Dr J.L. Bassi, professor and head, Orthopaedic Department, Dayanand Medical College and Hospital (DMCH), while sharing his recent one-week experience of working on the Life Line Express, the world’s first hospital on train, in remote Bachrava village in Rae Bareli.

Dr Bassi said working in the “hospital on wheels” had been one of his most unique experiences and the enthusiastic response of the masses could be assessed from the fact that nearly 1500 persons visited the camp.

“We operated 50 persons suffering from polio and physiotherapy was also given to them. The train has three OTs, recovery area, X- Rays facility and other diagnostic equipment and services”, he said.

Dr Bassi said providing voluntary service had brought immense satisfaction to the doctors who had come from different parts of the country. He said if more doctors came forward for this noble cause, the effort would get a major boost in the country.

Dr Bassi said the goal of the mobile hospital was to provide health care facilities within the area of 70,000 km of rail track to serve India’s disabled millions. The project, initiated by Ms Sonia Gandhi for the Rajeev Gandhi Foundation, had been well received by public and involved a huge cost.

Ludhiana, February 9
Doctors may soon be able to make appropriate diagnosis of the patient they are examining with a click of the mouse.

Dr S.C. Garg, a Ludhiana-based doctor with over 40 years of experience, worked for over 15 years to develop the software.

Dr Garg maintains that human memory can retain not more than 10 to 15 per cent of knowledge. When a doctor examines a patient, he makes an assessment of the disease by taking recourse to his knowledge. And it is difficult to retain everything in mind. To supplement his memory the software will help him.

A doctor can click the mouse for finding symptoms of a disease. Dr Garg maintains that this is for the first time this type of software has been developed and it will go a long way in helping the doctors to make the right assessment of diseases.

He says the new software he created is competent to bring forth all disease links which get easily missed out in day-to-day clinical decision making.

Listing various advantages of the software, he pointed out that it has been projected in the British Medical Journal by the President, Royal College of Physicians, that medical errors result in loss of resources to the tune of £ 1 billion annually through over-occupancy caused by errors or delays in diagnosis. In America about 1,00,000 patient die because of errors in diagnosis and all these problems, Dr Garg claims, can be overcome with the new software he has developed.

Ludhiana, February 9
The 44th annual athletics meet of the Khalsa College for Women, Civil Lines, will be held on February 11, according to Dr Varinder Kaur Thind, Principal of the college. Mr Surinder Singla, Minister for Finance and Planning, Punjab, will be the chief guest at the prize distribution function.

Meanwhile, the two-day annual athletics meet of Arya College, Ludhiana, will be held on February 11 and 12. Mr S. M. Sharma, Principal of the college, informed that Arjuna awardee (basketball) Sajjan Singh Cheema would declare the meet open on February 11 at 10 am while Mr S. K. Sharma, Commissioner, Municipal Corporation, would give away the prizes to the winners on February 12.

Khanna, February 9
The 2nd All-India International Volleyball Tournament will be organised at A.S. Senior Secondary School Stadium under the aegis of the Khanna Volleyball Association and the Unique Sports Club, Toronto (Canada) on February 11 and 12. Teams from across the country, including Punjab police, Jalandhar, BSF, Delhi, CRPF and ONGC with take part.

The tournament will be played on a league-cum-knock out basis and the winners will be awarded with a running trophy. The tournament will be followed by a kabaddi tournament on February 13.