No facilities to beat the heat at hospitals

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, March 13

Though summers have arrived with day time temperature everyday, the government hospitals in the city lack basic facilities for the visitors and patients to cope with the rising mercury level. A visit to Guru Nanak Dev Hospital here revealed that many water coolers and air coolers are lying defunct and need immediate repair. It was seen that most of the air coolers installed in the patients’ wards are in poor condition. The iron bodies of most of them are rusted and fans and water pumps are defunct.

Similar is the condition of water coolers which visitors use for drinking water. These water coolers are fitted with water purification systems but as these machines are defunct people are forced to drink water from open taps.

The condition at Employees State Insurance (ESI) hospital is also deplorable. It faces huge shortage of funds for doing repairs.

“These facilities should be ready before the onset of summer but nothing has been done so far. The government should take care of the basic facilities for patients as the washrooms at the hospitals are also in a very bad shape,” said a visitor.

Government Medical College Principal Dr Tejbir Singh said that the repairs of the machines at the premises would be carried out soon. He said that the authorities will ensure that these facilities are made available at the earliest.