The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

‘City well-equipped on healthcare front’
Chitleen K Sethi
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 9
“If development continued at the present pace, it won’t take long for this city to overtake New Delhi and Bombay in providing top class health facilities to its residents,” said Dr Sandeep Khurana, a DAV College, Sector 10, product from the city who is now a leading cardiologist in the USA.

Dr Khurana is one of the first few cardiologist in the USA to have started the use of a new blood test for patients who have heart problems or are at a risk to develop a heart problem. The test which is much more effective in telling doctors about how grave the problem is in a patient has recently become available for commercial use in the USA and is producing fantastic results.

“The test is like an MRI of blood. It is much more effective than the standard cholesterol test that we normally do and gives a very distinct and clear picture of what exactly the problem of the patient is, what is the extent of the problem and also indicates what will be the best treatment for the problem,” he says.

“The standard test which we have here in India and in the USA is a good test, but it clears a large number of people for not having a heart problem although they have a high risk of developing a heart problem in near future. This new test tells us about those people also who are likely to develop a heart disease later in life.”

Dr Khurana was in the city to interact with doctors at the Fortis Heart Institute and apprise them of this test. “The test is not available for commercial use in India, but considering the fact that number of heart patients is increasing rapidly in north India, steps should be taken by the authorities concerned authorities to make this test available in the country,” he said.

The test called ‘Nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopic analysis of the blood’ at present, costs double the price as compared to the standard lipo-protein test for ascertaining cholesterol level in blood.

“The test is expensive, but considering that it is much more effective than the standard test it is worth going for it. And even if the rate of this test is double the cost for the standard test, it is going to cost much less in India simply because medical facilities in India day cheaper than in the USA.”

Dr Sandeep Khurana is the son of Dr Khurana, a former Principal of the Dayanand Medical College, Ludhiana, he himself is an expert in the field and is impressed with the pace at which the city has acquired a cosmopolitan look in the past 10 years. “I did my 10 +2 from here and went on to do my degree in medicine from AIIMS. For post-graduation I want to the USA. But this city has really improved in the past 10 years and the kind of facilities we have here for healthcare are at places better than what we have even in the USA.

Workshop on disability prevention begins
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 9
Twenty-one doctors from the city participated in the third workshop in the series of workshops being held under the aegis of the Rehabilitation Council of India for “Orientation of medical officers in disability prevention and rehabilitation” which started at the Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32, here today.

Prof Raj Bahadur, MS, said India had about 100 million disabled persons, and the number was going to increase substantially by the year 2020 in view of the rapidly changing demographic profiles and morbidity pattern. Giving details of the training programme initiated by the GMCH under the aegis of the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Social Justice and empowerment, Prof Raj Bahadur said by March 2001, 100 per cent coverage would be achieved in the city. Once trained these officers would be interacting with community-based rehabilitation workers who were specially-trained volunteers selected from among general public.

Prof Sunandan Sood, HOD, Eye, GMCH, spoke about visual disabilities and gave an overview of the problems. He said out of the total number of 40 million blind people of the world, 13 million resided in India.

Talking about aids and appliances required for locomotor disability, Dr Ravi Kumar Gupta from the Department of Orthopaedics, GMCH, discussed various principles and guidelines laid down by the Government of India for evaluation of locomotor disabilities.

Prof Arjun Dass, HOD, ENT, GMCH, spoke about speech and hearing disabilities. He mentioned the significance of screening of high-risk population for hearing disabilities.

Stress on role of acupuncture
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, December 9
Methods of alternate medications should be used as complimentary to allopathic medicine rather than as replacements.

This was the statement being made at the Continuing Medical Education (CME) on alternate medicine organised by the Indira Gandhi Alumni Association here today.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Y. K. Batra of the Department of Anaesthesia, PGI, talked about the role of acupuncture in medical practice. He stated that although acupuncture had variable results among patients, there were results to show that many patients suffering from acute and chronic pain benefited from it. Electro acupuncture was most effective in cases of acute low backache, torticollis, cervicle spine syndrome and also in certain chronic pain diseases.

Dr Batra also talked about various theories of acupuncture. He also pointed out that it was still a controversial therapy and had variable success rates among patients with high placebo effects in some patients.

Mrs Aneeta Bansal talked about the efficiency of Reiki and the emotional freedom technique while Mrs Harleen Kaur elaborated on pranic healing. Both of these speakers described how the internal body energies could be used in healing various disorders like anxiety, depression, fear.

More than 150 members of the association attended the workshop.

Fine knock by Reetinder Sodhi
Our Sports Reporter

Chandigarh, December 9
Reetinder Sodhi of Patiala today made a brilliant knock of 104 runs and enabled the Punjab Cricket Club in beating the Subhania Club, New Delhi, by 77 runs to enter the last four of the inaugural JR Sharma Memorial Cricket Tournament played at the PCA stadium, SAS Nagar.

In another match of the series played at JR Institute, Barwala, near here, another international cricketer Yuvraj Singh’s fine knock of 54 runs off 48 deliveries helped Indian Airlines in beating Himachal Pradesh XII by seven wickets.

Brief scores; PCC XI: 240 runs for five wickets (Reetinder Sodhi 104 n.o., Sanjay Mahajan 60, Amit Kakria 28 n.o., Ankur Kakkar 17, Rajeev Uniyal 2 for 48 and Naveen 2 for 53) Subhania Club: 163 runs all out in 37.5 overs (Rajeev Uniyal 41, Parmod Bhatti 33, Naveen 36, Amit kakria 2 for 18 and Lakhbir Singh 2 for35).

IInd match: Brief scores: HPCA: 161 run for eight wickets (Rajeev Nayyar 47, Sangram Singh 36, Puneet Lath 28 n.o., Sonu Sharma 3 for 19 and RP Singh 2 for 34).

Indian Airlines: 164 runs for three (Yuvraj 54 n.o., Ishan Ganda 43, Pardeep Chawla 30 no., Ravneet Ricky 23 and Rahul Panta 2 for 37).

Weightlifting meet

Various new records were established in the 13th Senior and 3rd Junior Men Weightlifting Championships, which concluded on the PU campus on Saturday. The team championship went in favour of Weightlifting Coaching Centre, Sector 42, which secured 30 points, while Public Sports Club, SAS Nagar, were second with 23 points.

In the junior section, 62-kg class, Jagmohan Singh from WCC, Sector 42, smashed three state records in snatch from 75 kg to 85 kg, clean and jerk from 100 kg to 107.5 kg and in total from 177.5 kg to 212.5 kg.

In the seniors’ section in 62-kg class, Baljinder Singh of Chandigarh established new records in clean and jerk from 117.5 kg to 120 kg and in total from 212.5 kg to 215 kg.

In 85-kg class, Jaswinder Singh from Chandigarh created new record in clean and jerk from 145 kg to 155 kg.

Winners in junior section were: Jagmohan Singh, Surinder Singh, Kamaldeep Singh and Dalbir Singh. In the seniors’ section winners were: Baljinder Singh, Sukhdev Ram, Jaswinder Singh, Jasminder and Vikas Duggal.

Snooker title

Sunny Bhalla clinched the open snooker title in the Haryana State Billiards and Snooker Championship played here today. Sunny outplayed Sameer Bhalla 36-66, 67-24, 71-60, 63-29. On the basis of better score, Manan Nagpal was placed at number two. Sameer secured third place. Aman Bhasin bagged the junior billiards title as he outclassed Abhinav. Aman will play Amit Arora for the junior snooker title.

As many as 16 boys and equal number of girls have been selected for a 10-day coaching camp beginning from Monday for the 52nd Senior National Basketball Championship for men and women to be held at Pune from December 22 to 29.

Boys: Neeraj Hooda, Harveer Singh, Amrish Kumar, Harjot, Amit Kakran, Jaspreet, Ravinder, Gurpreet, Surinder Pal, Sunil,Vikas Rai, Arun Rana, Dalip, Harkanwer Singh, Sarharpreet Singh and Amanpreet Singh.

Girls: Kamaldeep Kaur, Amandeep, Sapna, Harpreet Kaur, Manjula Guleria, Shruti, Gunveen, Ranjeeta Rana, Sarabjit Kaur, Babita, Navneet Kaur, Sabdeep Kaur, Manu Gupta, Nivedita, Deepika and Kanchan. The camp for boys will be held at Sports Complex, Sector 46.

Cycling championship

Gurnoor Kang was adjudged the best cyclist in girl’s section in the Chandigarh Cycling Championships held today on the PU campus. Ajit Singh won 4000 m men individual pursuit event in this meet where more than 100 cyclists took part.

The other winners were: 1000 m time trial men: Ankur Kaul; 5000 m massed start: Himmat Singh; 5000 time trial women: Gurnoor Kang; 500 metre time trial boys (u-18): Harsimran Brar; 500m TT girls (u-18): Gurnoor Kang; 500m TT boys (u-16): Gurbir Singh Gill; 500 m TT Girls (u-14): Ashi; 3000 m individual.

Pursuit women: Gurnoor Kang; 3000 M individual pursuit boys (u-18): Ankur Kaul; 2000 m individual pursuit boys (u-16): Vivek Sharma; 1000 m individual pursuit boys (u-14): Vaibhav; 4000 massed start boys (u-18): Ajit Singh; 2000 massed start boys (u-16): Gurbir Gill; 2000 massed start girls under16: Gurnoor Kang; and 1000 m massed start boys under14: Abhinav Kaushal.

Chess meet

The Chandigarh Chess Association organised the under-nine chess meet at sports complex, Sector 42, and on the basis of the performance in the meet, following boys have been selected to represent Chandigarh in the 15th National Children under-seven and under-nine age group chess championship at Chennai from December 22. According to Mr Vipnesh Bhardwaj, the players are: Ankit (Hansraj Public School, Panchkula) and Sahil Bhatia (Tender Heart School, Sector 33, Chandigarh) reserve: Uttkarsh ( Shivalik Public School, Sector 41).