Patients rush to city drug de-addiction centre

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, September 20

With the transfer of the lone psychiatrist from the Civil Hospital, Bathinda, patients are being examined at the drug de-addiction centre. As a result, it has not only put the burden of work on doctors here but also affected the quality of medical services.

According to sources in the Health Department, the psychiatry unit of the Civil Hospital witnessed a sizeable number of 70 to 100 patients on a daily basis. But with the transfer of the lone psychiatrist to the government hospital, patients are asked to visit the drug de-addiction centre situated on the premises of the Civil Hospital for treatment.

The sources said the drug de-addiction centre already witnessed 100 to 150 patients at the OPD and IPD units on a daily basis and doctors would be burdened (with existing staff) with 70-100 more patients daily now.

A doctor at the hospital said, “Examining psychiatric patients requires adequate time to analyse and diagnose the disease and its causes. But now doctors would not be able to give enough time with the number of patients to the OPD exceeding 200 on a daily basis, affecting the quality of medical services.”

“It is a difficult task to examine so many patients on a single day, but we are somehow managing the affairs,” said a senior doctor at the centre.

Meanwhile, last week hundreds of patients were a harried lot as there was no doctor available at the psychiatry unit and at the drug de-addiction centre. As a result, patients (some of whom had come from far-off areas for treatment at the Civil Hospital) had to return home without being examined.

Apart from patients, arms licence applicants who come to get the medical formalities done here also expressed their displeasure over alleged mismanagement on the part of the Health Department.

Hari Narain Singh, Civil Surgeon, said, “We have no option but to work with the existing staff members as there is an acute shortage of staff now. Moreover, we are also planning to shift the drug rehabilitation centre from Industrial Growth Centre to the Civil Hospital premises for the convenience of patients.”