Nurses at home for patient care
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 9
The concept of home nursing seems to have caught up in the city as more and more patients are looking for some personalised care during their ailments and are opting for trained home nurses.

The nurses are equipped with a four-month practical and theoretical training in the course run by an NGO, All-India Women’s Conference here. While around 20 nurses are trained in each batch, Ms P.K. Wasu of the NGO says more than 15 patients are in the waiting list for hiring the trained home nurses on a daily basis. “The demand is so much that from this year, we have started training boys as male nurses also,” informs Ms Wasu.

The work, traditionally done by close family members, is now available for money. It is to the convenience of the young and the old alike. “A list of our patients include old couples whose children have settled abroad. They simply send in the cheque in dollars to the parents and ask them to seek personalised care. In other cases, the women, after delivery, opt for the nurses for the initial period of two months as they have no elder woman to look after them,” informs Mr Wasu.

The trained nurses charge Rs 100 per day and Rs 150 if they are required to stay overnight. Their work areas are demarcated strictly to patient care only as they are trained in first-aid and giving medication to the patients on the prescription of the doctor.

The basic qualification for these nurses, who generally come from the lower strata of society, is matriculation before they are given the four-month training, which includes lectures by experts from the Red Cross and practical training at General Hospital, Sector 16. At the end of the course, the nurses get certificates from the Red Cross, making them eligible for the home nursing.

“There are a number of people in the city who can afford personalised care with a person attending to them throughout the 24 hours. Since there are not many places in the city offering trained home nurses, we are always flooded with requests,” adds Ms Wasu.

With public hospitals in the city not giving round-the-clock personalised care even to those who can afford it, home nurses are taking care of the people’s requirements.

Diarrhoea cases reported
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 9
As the showers continued in the city, diarrhoea cases too are being reported in city hospitals and health centres. Three more cases were reported in Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32, today. One of the cases was from Colony No 5 here.

Meanwhile, the cholera suspect, Kamla Wati of Sector 66, Mohali, has been tested negative for the disease, say hospital sources.

Health Department officials say the situation is under control and the diarrhoea cases coming in have not seen any sudden increase in the season so far.

SPORTS

St Stephen’s win soccer meet
Our Sports Reporter

Aerobic contests: Tanisha and Gurmeet Singh were declared ‘Ms Fit Lake Club’ and ‘Mr Fit Lake Club,’ respectively, in the aerobic competitions held at the Lake Club yesterday. As many as 154 competitors participated. Mr I.S. Sandhu, Director Sports, UT, distributed prizes.

Golf meet: Rahul Bakshi with a best gross score of 75 was adjudged winner in the Inter-School Golf Tournament played at Forest Hill Resort today.

As many as 45 children drawn from eight schools of Chandigarh, Panchkula and Mohali took part.

The results are: Best Gross; Rahul Bakshi — 75; best net: Shabaz Khurana — 70; longest drive: Ajeetesh Sandhu covering 250 yards, nearest to the pin: and Rahul 
Bakshi — Nine feet.

Girls football meet from August 13
Our Sports Reporter

Chandigarh, August 9
The UT State Sub-Junior Girls Soccer Championship will be held at Football Stadium, Sector 17, here from August 13 to 16. According to Mr Ravinder Talwar, President of the Chandigarh Football Association, the Junior Girls State Championship will be held on August 23.

Badminton tourney: The Eighth Junior State Ball Badminton Championship for boys and girls under-19 for the Santosh Rani trophy will be held at St Joseph’s Senior Secondary School, Sector 44, from August 31 to September 2. The meet will be held on league-cum-knockout basis. Players born on or after January 1, 1986, would take part.

Shooting champion: Gurjinder Singh Sidhu, a student of Punjabi University, Patiala, and resident of city, stole the limelight last evening by winning a gold medal and a silver medal in various events of the Chandigarh State Shooting Meet.

Sidhu shot 257/300 in the senior section of the .22 OS prone open sight event, while silver in 3 position OS in the senior section.

Now Sidhu is participating in the GV Mavlankar Shooting Championship to be held in Coimbatore next month. 

ADMINISTRATION

New SDM in UT
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, August 9
Ms Padmini Singla, a 2002 batch IAS officer of the UT cadre, has been posted at Chandigarh as SDM. The orders say that the Chandigarh Administration would decide later as to which of the three subdivisions Ms Singla would be posted at.

In the past too, Union Ministry of Home Affairs has posted young IAS officers as SDMs, the last being Mr Gyanesh Bharti.