Minister urges private hospitals to serve the poor
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, July 3
The Punjab Health and Family Welfare Minister, Mr R.C. Dogra, has called upon privately managed hospitals to accord top priority to provide treatment to the poor at affordable rates.

He was addressing a function after inaugurating a new high-tech ICU and a fully air-conditioned OPD wing at Gurdev Hospital on the Ferozepore road here today. He welcomed Dr Waheguru Pal Singh, a renowned surgeon, and Dr Harkanwal Sidhu, on the occasion. Members of the management and staff of the hospital were present.

He highlighted the need for strengthening coordination between the government and private hospitals providing quality medical services in the state. He claimed that for eradication and prevention of six fatal diseases good work was being done in coordination with private hospitals by the Health Department under the National Health Programme.

He also stressed upon the need of mobilisation of maximum number of NGOs in providing medical facilities and creating awareness among the people regarding various health programmes. He said his department was fully equipped to meet any kind of exigency in the coming rainy season. Sufficient medicines and chlorine tablets had been arranged, he added.

He expressing concern over the rising cost of treatment. He said diagnostic facilities, including ultrasound, X-Ray and pathological laboratories, had been provided at all hospitals in the main cities of the state. Poor patients were making maximum use of these facilities, as a result, private laboratories had been forced to reduce the rates for tests, he added.

Appreciating the super specialty medical services in around a 12 medical disciplines, especially for rural and poor patients, being rendered by Gurdev Hospital, the minister hoped that with the joining of renowned doctors, the hospital would further bring substantial improvement in these services.

Dr S.S. Grewal, director of Gurdev Hospital, said the sole motive behind the starting of this hospital was to serve the rural and poor patients at affordable rates. He said what started as an eye hospital grew into a full-fledged super-speciality hospital due to the dedication and hard work of the management and the staff.

He said the hospital was providing super-specialty medical services in various medical disciplines, including gynaecology, orthopaedics, surgery, medicine, plastic surgery, nephrology etc. He said a new eight-bed ICU on the second floor and four new dialysis machines would also be added shortly.

Dr Waheguru Pal Singh said doctors and other medical staff of the hospital would extend excellent medical services to the poor patients and would organise maximum number of medical check-up camps in rural areas.

Others present on the occasion were Dr S.N. Tiwari, Civil Surgeon, Dr Ranjit Cheema, Medical Superintendent, Mr Pritpal Singh Grewal, a former Principal of the GNEC, Mr Gurdev Singh Mahal, Mr Kirpal Singh Grewal, Mr Rajwant Singh Grewal and Mr Jagtar Singh.

Private docs defend commercialisation 
of medical services
Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, July 3
Medical services are fast turning into a profit-making industry in the city. During the past few years, several private medical institutions have come up that offer world-class services. And in the course, these are also making good profits.

Doctors maintain they have every right to earn profits as long as they remain within ethical limits and do not resort to crass commercialisation. Moreover, the investment in setting up these institutions runs into hundreds of crores.

Besides two big hospitals, Christian Medical College and Hospital and Dayanand Medical College and Hospital, there are several other private institutions like SAS Grewal Mediscan Hospital, Satluj Hospital, Sigma Heart Centre, Iqbal Nursing Home to name only a few. The Apollo group of hospitals is all set to start a hospital in Ludhiana in a couple of months.

According to Dr Sarabjit Kaur of SAS Mediscan Grewal Hospital, the services provided in Ludhiana are among the best in the country. The patients no longer need to go for super specialised services to Delhi or Mumbai.

Patients are flying in from abroad, where they have to wait for months to get surgeries performed, she says. “Be it a laproscopic, neuro, cardiac or plastic surgery, you have everything available in Ludhiana,” she says.

Dr Iqbal, who introduced the concept of in-vitro fertilisation in India, says Ludhiana has emerged as an important healthcare centre in the north.

It is not the routine cardiac or neuro surgeries, which are performed here, but even the highly sophisticated IVF procedures are also performed here in routine with a reasonably good success rate, he adds.

But these institutions do not come for nothing. All these institutions have been set up after massive investments, which runs into crores of rupees. Moreover, the recurring costs are also quite high. Dr Sarabjit Kaur says, “When you provide better services, it involves a lot of expenditure also. Hiring trained staff and purchasing specialised equipment come at a premium.”

Dr Amardeep Singh of Sigma Heart Centre justifies the concept of industrialisation of medical services. He says the medical equipment like an MRI machine or a CT scan machine need huge investments, besides a good recurring maintenance cost. This has to be made up.

Moreover, he maintains, the medical facilities are still among the best and the cheapest in Ludhiana than at any other place in the north. Other important factor, he says, is that the services are available instantly and the patients do not have to wait.

With the concept of medical insurance getting popular, patients can walk into these hospitals without any hassles or financial problems, he says.

Stones removed from horse-shoe kidney
Our Correspondent

Ludhiana, July 3
In a rare and challenging surgical endeavour, Dr Baldev Singh Aulakh,a urologist and transplant surgeon at Dayanand Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) has removed stones from a congenitally deformed kidney known as ‘horse- shoe kidney’ by keyhole surgery known as PCNL.

A 62 year-old-man from Malout was having pain in the left side of abdomen since long. He was being treated with medicines and when the pain persisted, he was referred to DMCH. The X-Ray and IVP, taken in the hospital, shown to Dr Aulakh revealed that the patient was having a horse- shoe kidney with stones.

In such deformed kidney, lower parts of both kidneys get fused with each other and the kidneys move towards centre of abdomen, lying in front of great blood vessels. The kidneys also do not ascend to their normal position and are more prone to obstruction (blockage), infection and stone formation. One in 1500 persons has chances of having such a kidney. In such cases, the stones, if present, have to be removed with special procedure known as PCNL.

According to Dr Aulakh, the most challenging aspect in such cases is that while doing keyhole surgery (PCNL) it is important to choose a site away from blood vessels and intestines where a thin needle is placed into kidney so that surrounding organs do not get damaged. Through the needle guide wire is passed, tract is dilated and sheath placed into kidney through which stones are broken and removed. In case of this particular patient, stones were removed by keyhole, complete clearance was done and patient went home, a happy and relieved man.

To educate the public, Dr Aulakh informed that if someone felt pain in back or side, associated with problems with urination, the person could be having kidney stones.