Lalru Community Health Centre sans power back-up

LALRU: The lack of basic facilities and insufficient staff mar the daytoday working of the Community Health Centre CHC at Lalru

Updated At : 07:37 AM Jun 20, 2016 IST

The Community Health Centre at Lalru. Photo by writer

Satinder Pal Singh

Lalru, June 19

The lack of basic facilities and insufficient staff mar the day-to-day working of the Community Health Centre (CHC) at Lalru. The 30-bedded CHC, constructed at a cost of Rs 2.60 crore to cater to residents of nearby villages, needs immediate attention of the authorities as it lacks a standby generator for use in case of a power outage. If there is a power cut, the hospital authorities are likely to land in trouble.

Patients alleged that claims of providing better medical facilities to villagers fell flat as the CHC did not have any alternate arrangement to deal with a power outage. In the absence of proper power supply, the Community Health Centre is only a referral centre where doctors only do the formality of referring patients to the Dera Bassi Civil Hospital or some private clinic for treatment.

Though the number of patients, especially pregnant women, have gone up, the CHC staff has been forced to depend on alternative arrangements like emergency lamps in case of an emergency.

“In the absence of a generator, maternity surgeries cannot be performed during night and we refer patients to other hospitals in emergency,” said sources.

“There is no power back-up due to which we are often forced to attend to maternity cases with battery-powered torches. During night, it is nearly impossible to maintain disinfection. Due to the absence of these basic facilities, people find private clinics more convenient,” said a staff nurse at the CHC.

“The government is spending crore of rupees on the construction of buildings and equipment but cannot provide power back-up here,” said a patient.

Prince Sodhi, SMO, Community Health Centre, Lalru, agreed that the government failed to provide the much-needed power back-up. He further said a generator was a must to make sure that everything worked smoothly.

When contacted, Neelam Bhardwaj, CMO, Mohali, said there was no gynaecologist and delivery cases were less at the centre. She further said getting a generator for the CHC was on priority and it would be provided to the Community Health Centre soon.