Lack of doctors and poor maintenance of the equipment required for pathological tests in the district and mela hospitals have left medical services in a pathetic state. Left at the receiving end of the Governmental apathy, the poor patients are being forced to throng private facilities which are fleecing them of their hard-earned money.
When quizzed, the officers of the State-run facilities have thrown up their hands, pleading helplessness and holding the dithering health department responsible for the sorry state of things. The patients say that they are bearing the brunt of things. “The predicament of the pregnant women is understandable as the ultra- sound tools are non-functional in the state-run hospitals in the district,” said a patient.
Things are really bad in the district hospital where the only radiologist working in the district hospital was recently sent to Dehradun, resulting in the lengthening list of the expectant mothers waiting for confirmation of their pregnancy through the ultra- sound testing.
Speaking to The Pioneer, superintendent Mela Hospital who is himself a radiologist Dr Rajesh Gupta said, “As the ultra- sound machine in the hospital stopped giving clear scans we were forced to shut it down. The technicians being scarce are compounding things further. The patients are indeed suffering.”
Queried why things were so dismal, the newly appointed CMO District Hospital Ashok Gairola asked this correspondent to talk to CMS for getting a clearer picture. CMS Dr A K Sainger said that a radiologist alone can prepare medical reports. “No other doctor can take the ultrasound test. We have informed the state medical authorities about the problem. We hope things would be sorted out soon,” he said.
Hospital sources say that 25 patients on an average are advised ultrasound test by the doctors daily. “I shelled out Rs 600 for the same at a private diagnostic centre at Ranipur More. Things are utterly depressing for us who live from hand to mouth,” said Arzoo Khan, an expectant mother, found outside the Mela Hospital.
Given the dismal State of things, the State Government’s Janani Suraksha Yojana, meant to give free ultrasound facility to the expectant mothers at the state-run hospitals, is now in a paralysed state with the beneficiaries having no knowledge when things would resume, sparing them the compulsion of thronging the private labs and getting fleeced.