Help heal sick railway hospital, minister told

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, July 11

Members of the Railway Pensioners Welfare Men's Association, Bathinda, have written a letter to Union Railway Minister Piyush Goyal to bring the ailing condition of the railway hospital here to his notice.

Association's vice-president Sukhdev Ram Bansal, who has drafted the letter, said the Bathinda railway hospital was very old and had been facing a shortage of staff.

The letter reads that in the absence of a specialist doctor, patients at the railway hospital are referred to Ambala and Delhi for treatment. It further says despite having Max Hospital and Delhi Heart Super Specialty Hospital as empanelled hospitals of the Railways, the patients were not able to take the benefit of them. 

Bansal highlighted that as there was no laboratory in the hospital, patients were referred to a private lab for conducting tests and on some occasions, patients had to go to Delhi and Ambala hospitals. 

He said the ECG machine, which was lying defunct, was sent to Ambala for repair last year, but the hospital did not get it so far. 

Bansal also highlighted the non-availability of medicines prescribed by private doctors at the railway hospital in the letter.

“No female doctor has been appointed here since Dr Geetu was transferred to Ambala. She was transferred three years ago. The post of nurse has been lying vacant since 2015 and there has been no dresser for the past five years," he wrote in the letter.

Besides Union Railway Minister, the letter has also been sent to the ADRM, Northern Railway, Ambala; Chief Medical Superintendent, Ambala; Chief Medical Director, New Delhi; and General Manager, Northern Railway, New Delhi.