New timings cause rush at city hospitals

<div class="section1"><div class="Normal"><span style="" font-family:="" times="" new="" roman="" class="author">SOURAV SANYAL</span><br />CHANDIGARH: Thanks to bureaucracy, primary health care in the city winds up by 2 pm. No wonder the dispensaries which dot the city, initially conceived to provide primary level health care to the residents, remain grossly underutilised.<br />Secondary and tertiary level health care providers, namely General Hospital, Government Medical College and Hospital and PGI thus land in a spot attending to patients who could have been otherwise seen by doctors at the dispensaries.<br />Presently the dispensaries, which used to run in two shifts earlier, now function in a single shift.As per the directives of UT Administration, all the dispensaries roll down shutters around 2 pm. ‘‘This change was brought about by those who wanted to emulate the rules implemented in Punjab. The earlier practice whereby primary level of health care was made available to the residents in two shifts, one from 8 am to 12 noon and again from 3 pm to 5 pm, was scrapped when it was decided to adopt the Punjab rules in Chandigarh. Timings were rescheduled and from two shifts, it became a single shift operating from 8 am to 2.30 pm on all working days barring Sunday,’’ explains a senior health department functionary.<br />The present functioning of the dispensaries, which remains largely inaccessible to the working class and government servants, adds on to the woes of the already burdened city hospitals. ‘‘The basic flaw with the present system is that the UT Administration fails to realise that unlike Punjab where dispensaries are located in far-flung areas, here the whole city is located within a radius of 114 sq km. When huge sums have been pumped into building the dispensaries and procuring sophisticated equipments, why is it that the facilities are being underutilised? What could have served a larger population now caters to a handful. The doctors instead of spending their time idly once the dispensaries close down, could infact do a better service by attending to the basic health care needs of the patients,’’ remarks a senior doctor.<br />‘‘While formulating the basic policies, UT Administration should consider the basic concept of the city and the services provided therein. It should not be on bureaucratic lines as it is a service to be provided to the needy at their doorstep instead of adopting policies in practice elsewhere. Bureaucrats are far removed from ground realities,’’ says another doctor. With the dispensaries closing down in the afternoon, people are forced to head for the hospitals, which leads to ‘unnecessary’ overcrowding resulting in ‘deteriorating’ quality of health care. </div> </div>