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Ludhiana: 6 months post revamp, civil hosp lift lie defunct
The lift was installed at a cost of ₹50 lakh in 2014, but soon after the inauguration it was shut down; according to an official who was posted at the hospital at that time, some kids got stuck in the lift shortly after the inauguration following which it was shut down
Despite a major renovation project earlier this year, the lifts at the mother and child section of the civil hospital remain inoperational. The lift was a part of the renovation project, which was sponsored by cabinet minister Sanjiv Arora (then Rajya Sabha MP), and was inaugurated by the national convenor of the ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Arvind Kejriwal along with chief minister Bhgawant Mann.
“We are working on this. I joined just three days ago. I am taking stock of the infrastructure here. The lift is one of the issues I am taking up. I have called the Punjab Health Service Corporation (PHSC) officials to assess the problem to find a solution at the earliest,” said senior medical officer (SMO) Dr Akhil Sareen.
The lift was installed at a cost of ₹50 lakh in 2014, but soon after the inauguration it was shut down. According to an official who was posted at the hospital at that time, some kids got stuck in the lift shortly after the inauguration following which it was shut down.
Earlier the health officials have cited lack of lift supervisor as the reason for shutting it down.
The new SMO said that he has identified four areas of key concern that will be taken up for improvement in the coming months.
“We are in the process of finding out the gaps in critical infrastructure, getting to the root of the issues and formulating plans to fix those gaps,” said Dr Sareen.
Besides infrastructural gaps, he has laid focus on sanitation as an immediate issue.
“The hospital obviously has issues with sanitation. And sanitation is something that goes hand in hand with health. We have already instructed the sanitation supervisors and workers to ensure cleanliness and report the problems so that those can be resolved to make the hospital cleaner,” he said.
A recurring complaint at the hospital has been the non-availability of medicines from time to time. As the doctors are instructed to not prescribe any drug out of stock with the hospital’s pharmacy, many doctors have complained that it affected their work.
Dr Sareen said that ensuring availability of drugs would be his top priority.
He also claimed that in the coming months, the services in the emergency will also be streamlined to provide better and timely care to the patients.
