Patients suffer as paediatric OPD shifted to second floor

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, December 14

Patients and their attendants visiting the Women and Children Hospital, a unit of the Civil Hospital, are deeply perturbed after the paediatric OPD was shifted to the second floor recently.

Notably, sick children and newborns accompanied by their parents visit the paediatrics OPD. Earlier, the OPD was situated on the ground floor and parents of sick children got them examined in a hassle-free manner. Now, the patients are having a harrowing time while using stairs or ramps in the hospital.

The three-storey building of the hospital with 50-bed capacity was inaugurated amid huge fanfare by Union Minister Harsimrat Kaur Badal in 2014.

Sources said in order to facilitate easy and hassle-free movement of patients, there was a provision for lifts. A lift was installed after around five years, but it has never been made operational till now.

Notably, the first floor of the hospital houses the maternity ward and the recovery ward. Besides patients and their attendants, doctors and staff members of the hospitals also use the stairs to reach the paediatrics OPD.

Patients, especially children accompanied by their parents or grandparents, find it thought to climb stairs. There are five paediatricians at the hospital and doctors examine more than 300 patients on a daily basis.

Health Department officials said the paediatrics OPD had been shifted to the second floor on a temporary basis due to repair and renovation work. Finance Minister Manpreet Singh Badal had allocated funds to carry out the repair and renovation work at the hospital.

Senior Medical Officer, Women and Children Hospital, Sukhjinder Singh Gill said, “The renovation work is on at the hospital. It is likely to continue for nine months. After the completion of the work, we will see what can be done. There was a provision for a lift, but it could not be made operational owing to a paucity of funds.”