Patients suffer as Una hospital has no orthopaedic surgeon

Rajesh Sharma

Una, September 8

People of Una district continue to face hardships due to the absence of an orthopaedic surgeon at the district hospital for the past six months. The Health Department claims that it had ordered the transfer of an orthopaedic specialist on two occasions, but the specialist doctor did not join the institution. The matter was taken up by locals during a Jan Manch presided over by Health Minister Vipin Parmar, but to no avail.

Every day, accident victims from various parts of the district are brought to the hospital, but even small cases related to bone injuries are referred to PGIMER, Chandigarh, or other higher institutions. As a result, a majority of them are forced to take private treatment in or around the city, incurring huge bills.

The condition of the elderly and under privileged, who cannot afford treatment in private hospitals or travel outside state, is pitiable. Also, under the present setup, free treatment continues to be denied even to Ayushman Bharat beneficiaries, belonging to the weakest sections of the society, making a mockery of the world’s biggest health insurance scheme.

According to medical experts, one reason why surgeons refrain from joining services at the Una district hospital could be the absence of a C Arm machine, which is almost a mandatory apparatus for long bone inter-nailing surgeries in the present times. All bone specialists are today trained on these machines, which enable the surgeon to get real time X-ray images of the bones while joining them on the operating table.

An old C Arm machine is lying defunct at the hospital for the past many years and the hospital administration has not bothered to get it repaired or replaced. In the times of growing instances of litigation in the medical field, no doctor wants to take a chance by performing surgeries without proper machinery and equipment, an expert said.

Earlier, every Saturday, a medical board used to be formed at the district hospital to issue disability certificates to people. However, the board was now not being constituted due to the lack of a surgeon. So, people with disabilities now have to go to Tanda medical college for a certificate.