Hallo Majra dispensary at the mercy of temporary doctors

Mohit Khanna

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, June 25

Hallo Majra Dispensary located at the border of the City Beautiful presents a sorry state of health infrastructure.

Catering to population of nearly 35,000, the lone civil dispensary of the area is at the mercy of temporary doctors. For the past 11 months no regular doctor has been deployed in the dispensary, which is being run by the Municipal Corporation (MC).   

For the past three months former panch of Hallo Majra, Dalip Kaur is shuttling from one office to another, urging the authorities to deploy a permanent doctor in the dispensary. But all her requests have fallen on deaf ears.

"Imagine, a woman living near the airport area faces an emergency situation and rushes to dispensary along with her children in scorching heat. On coming here, she could not find a doctor. Many women of the area suffer similar ordeal each day and sadly the officials are doing nothing to resolve the issue," complained Dalip Kaur.

While the doctor's room was vacant, the handout pasted on the board read that doctor is available on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

"Huge rush of patient could be witnessed during the three days when the doctors are available. As monsoon is approaching cases of mosquito-borne diseases, including dengue, will start rearing their head. We fear the situation will go out of control if the authorities do not take timely action and deploy a permanent medical officer at the dispensary," said the area residents who had gathered outside the dispensary.

Several efforts were made to reach Medical Officer Health (MOH) Dr Pardeep Visheshi and area councillor Bharat Bhushan, but both of them remained incommunicado.

Pregnant women and those taking their children to the dispensary were angered at the unavailability of regular doctors.

The area residents complain that they were being meted out a step-motherly treatment as they belong to the economically weaker section.