Equipment at Kaithal hospital lies defunct

Parveen Arora

Kaithal, July 9

Kaithal District Civil Hospital is facing severe crisis as several essential machines and equipment have been lying non-functional, leaving patients and staff in a difficult situation. Among the defunct equipment and machines are the oxygen plant, lithotripsy machine, four post-mortem chambers and a fully automatic biochemistry analyser.

The oxygen plant, which was established during the Covid-19 pandemic, is out of order. “It was set up to provide oxygen to patients without any hurdle. However, due to a technical issue in one of its parts, the entire plant has been non-fucntional for past several days,” said a hospital employee.

“The lithotripsy machine, which is used for non-invasive treatment of kidney stones, is also defunct. The machine is locked in a room, and patients cannot benefit from it as one of its parts is not working. According to officials, the machine has three parts — the CRM, which is used in orthopedic operations, the ultrasonic part and the third part, which is non-functional. The repair cost quoted by the machine provider is high, and now the authorities are planning to get it repaired in the open market,” said an employee.

Out of the eight chambers in the post-mortem house, four are out of order, significantly hampering the mortuary’s operations.

Furthermore, the fully automatic biochemistry analyser is also defunct. The equipment is crucial for conducting a wide range of blood tests that help in diagnosing various conditions. With this equipment being out of service, diagnostic processes are severely affected — further delaying the patient care and treatment plans.

Local residents, health officials and members of the opposition parties have expressed their concerns over the poor state of the infrastructure at the hospital. A senior doctor said, “We have been raising our concerns with the authorities for months, but no action has been taken till now.”

Sachin, a local, said, “Poor and underprivileged people come to the hospital for treatment, but it is disheartening to see that these machines are out of order. This situation forces them to either go to private hospitals or to other districts, which is not always feasible for them.”

Senior Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Randeep Surjewala said the health services in Kaithal were in shambles. “The BJP government has ruined the health services here. It has failed to provide facilities at the government hospital. Medical equipment worth Rs 5.70 crore is non-functional. The hospital lacks even the basic facilities,” he alleged.

However, the authorities claim that efforts are being made to improve the situation. “We are well aware of the problems being faced by the patients at the hospital, and are working towards repairing the non-functional machines and equipment as soon as possible,” said Renu Chawla, Civil Surgeon, Kaithal. She said the post-mortem chambers would be

made functional in a day or two. “We already have four functional chambers,” she added.

“We have placed the order for the reagent chemical for Vitamin D and Vitamin D12, and these will be available in a couple of days,” she said. “We have written to the higher authorities for a fully automatic biochemistry analyser, and we are hopeful it will arrive within a week. We have also approached an NGO for it. We already have three semi-automatic analysers, so no work has been affected,” Dr Chawla added.

Talking about the oxygen plant, she said the budget for the repair of one of its parts would be released within a week, and the PSA plant would be started soon. The centralised manifold oxygen system was currently operational, she added.