7 yrs on, diagnostic centre at Bathinda to see light of day

BLURB: Rs 40-lakh centre likely to be operational by Jan end

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Sameer Singh

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, December 22

After hitting several roadblocks for the past over seven years, the project to start a well-equipped diagnostic centre-cum-advanced laboratory at Bathinda Civil Hospital will finally see the light of day.

The centre is likely to be made operational on public-private partnership (PPP) mode in early 2022. With the new facility in place, patients (majority from low socio-economic strata) would be benefitted as they can get medical tests such as CT scan, MRI and other tests done at the centre itself, for which, earlier, they had to pay high prices at private labs.

Notably, Rs 40-lakh centre, built in 2013 here on the premises of the Civil Hospital, could not be made operational owing to “official apathy”. The building was being used for storing medicines from drug warehouses for few years before being vacated again.

With the project getting delayed, patients had to bear the brunt as they were left with no alternative than to visit private labs, which fleeced them arbitrarily. Patients who could not afford to pay high charges of medical tests at private labs, even got coerced to visit Government Medical College and Hospital, Faridkot.

Healthy department authorities had made several bids to make the diagnostic centre operational through the PPP mode but in vain.

The medical machinery and equipment have already arrived at the centre and the installation work and recruitment of trained staff would be initiated soon, said a senior official of the department. The process to introduce RT-PCR testing facility has also been started, he said.

Civil Surgeon Dr Tejwant Singh Dhillon said: “We are quite hopeful to start the centre by January end. A Mumbai-based private firm has been roped in to run and conduct medical tests of patients on subsidised rates.”