Civil Hospital without audiometer machine operator since 2005

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, October 3

Although the district Health Department claims to have provided a good health mechanism in the district, but the ground reality of the Bhai Mani Singh Civil Hospital depicts belies their tall claims.

According to information available, since 2005 audiometer machine has been installed at the Civil Hospital for evaluating the hearing acuity of the patients lying non-functional as the official to operate the audiometer machine has not been deployed by the authorities concerned till date.

Besides, the authorities concerned also haven’t filled the psychologist official post at the hospital.

It is pertinent to mention that the Central and state governments have initiated various policies for the facilitation of public. Recently an India Inclusive Drive was concluded under which education department special deployed teachers who went to all the government schools and checked the disability of the students.

There area around 167 hearing impaired students and 1,328 mentally challenged students have been reported, but due to the lax attitude of the district authorities concerned they have been forwarded to Guru Gobind Singh Medical College Faridkot.

Moreover, the District Early Intervention Centre (DEIC) located inside the premises of the civil hospital which serves free medical facility to students also observed the same problem for the longest time, but the authorities concerned seem to be least bothered for inconvenience faced by public.

According to the team conducted the India inclusive drive in the district, it is unfortunate from the part of district health department that despite having the audiometer machine for the last many years. The authorities concerned haven’t deployed the official over the years. As a result the consequences of non-availability of the service are being faced by the public.

They further added that despite resolving the problem the district health department referred the cases directly to the Guru Gobind Singh Medical College Faridkot.

Civil Surgeon Hari Narayan Singh confirmed that for the past many years despite having the audiometer machine in the district hospital government haven’t filled vacant audiologist and psychologist post in the hospital.

He further added that many a time they had sent the application to the health department, but in vain.