This govt dispensary kiosk faces staff crunch

Manav Mander

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, January 15

Located at Transport Nagar, the government dispensary kiosk mainly caters to truck drivers working in the area. As The Tribune team reached the dispensary at around 1:30 pm on Thursday, it was found locked and a few patients were found waiting outside it but to no avail.

Jot Ram, who was waiting near the dispensary, said he was waiting to consult the doctor as he was having fever along with cough and cold. “I had made two rounds of the dispensary but it was lying closed since the morning,” he said.

Posts of Class IV staff, sweeper vacant

There are five staff members at the dispensary which include a medical officer, three ANMs, a pharmacist while the post of Class IV staff and sweeper are vacant. Kulwinderjit Kaur, an auxiliary nurse midwife of the dispensary, said: “The medical officer is there but he has another duty at the Civil Surgeon Office for two days a week and in his absence I attend all patients.”

When enquired from a person who owns a shanty near the dispensary, he said staff came in the morning for 30 minutes, cleaned the premises and then left the place after locking the dispensary.

“Usually it is opened but it is closed today,” he said.

Kulwinderjit Kaur, an auxiliary nurse midwife of the dispensary, when contacted, said staff of the dispensary had gone to Mother and Child Hospital, Vardham, for a meeting on the Covid-19 vaccine.

“The entire staff has been called for the meeting and we all were there. We came in the morning but had to rush back due to the meeting,” she said.

There are five staff members at the dispensary which include a medical officer, three ANMs, a pharmacist while the posts of Class IV staff and sweeper are vacant.

“The medical officer is there but he has another duty at the Civil Surgeon Office for two days a week and in his absence I attend all patients,” she said.

There is no sweeper and the staff manage themselves for the cleaning of the dispensary.

Another patient Seema Dulari, who was returning without meeting doctor, said she used to meet the ANM for taking medicines as the doctor comes here often.

“I will come tomorrow again,” she said, adding that she could not afford to go to a private clinic and would visit the place tomorrow.

The timings of this dispensary is 1 pm to 7 pm in summers and 12 noon to 6 pm in winters.

Kiosk dispensaries were set up in slums of the district under the National Urban Health Mission to provide healthcare facilities to a large section of migrants and slum dwellers in 2014.

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