The Tribune, Chandigarh, India - Chandigarh Stories

HEALTH

Health campaign launched in slums, villages
Tribune News Service

Panchkula, August 6
The health authorities here have launched a vigorous health campaign in the slum colonies and villages of the township to ensure that no water-borne epidemics break out here.

With the passages and bylanes in Rajiv Colony, Indra Colony, Azad Colony and Budanpur remaining submerged in water for two days, the threat of water-borne and vector-borne diseases looms large over these colonies. The Health Department has today set up a health control room, and asked the residents to inform at telephone number (0172) 2573907 in case of the outbreak of any disease. The District Health Officer, Dr Lalit Virmani, has been made the nodal officer for this campaign.

Three special teams comprising a doctor, a health worker and a Class IV worker have been set up for inspecting Rajiv Colony, Indra Colony and Azad Colony. Other than this, six teams have been set up (two teams each for Rajiv Colony, Indra Colony and village Budanpur) to move from door to door and check if any case of diarrhoea, dysentry, jaundice or any viral infections, and administer first aid. These teams will also take blood samples of the residents suffering from fever, which will be tested in the laboratories on a day-to-day basis.

These teams will also distribute chlorine tablets and generate awareness among the flood-hit residents about drinking boiled water.

The health authorities have also set up 15 teams for anti-larvae treatment in various slums and villages, where the rain water has not been drained out. The anti-larvae medicine will be sprayed and they will also ensure that water collected in pots, coolers here is drained. An insect collect team has also been set up to collect samples of vectors from these areas and then test them in laboratory to see the eventuality of spread of vector borne diseases.

Six teams have also been set up for fogging these areas regularly. The doctors at General Hospital, Sector 6, have also been put on high alert and the leave of all staff in the health department has been cancelled to deal with the situation, informed Civil Surgeon, Dr Satvir Chaudhary.

Docs all smiles after SC judgement
Tribune News service

Chandigarh, August 6
Its a decision that has brought smiles on the faces of doctors. Following the judgement of the Supreme Court yesterday that the doctors are not criminally liable in case of a patient’s death due to error of judgement, doctors here say that not only the high risk surgeries will now be performed in a better way but also the decision will go a long way in improving the doctor-patient relationship.

“There is hardly any one in the medical profession who will not see it as a welcome step, which has changed the entire outlook of the community. Earlier, while taking the vital decision or dealing with extremely critical cases, the doctors were worried about the outcome and many would hesitate to take that last chance, which could be life saving,’’ says Professor and Head of Department of Ophthalmology at the PGI, Dr Amod Gupta. Doctors are not criminals after all, he says.

Says the former head of Department of General Surgery at the PGI and a former president of the Association of Sugeons in India, Prof S.M. Bose. “Public sector hospitals have many constraints like the shortage of staff, overload in emergencies, shortage of equipment and the relative urgency of dealing with each case. For instance, in the PGI emergency there are not more than two or three doctors for 50-odd patients. If a patient dies under these circumstances the doctors can’t be blamed,’’ he says, adding that most of the times attendants of the patients do not understand the limitations of the doctors and the hospital infrastructure. However, Prof Bose says that some check should be kept on unscrupulous doctors.

A private practitioner in the city even says that private doctors had developed a defensive mechanism and they refer the major cases to big hospitals so that the blame did not come on them.