E-Paper
Health dept ?living? with dead phones
LIFELINE OF two major offices under the Health Department has been cut off for all the wrong reasons. The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has barred all the incoming and outgoing calls of the telephone number at the chief medical officer's office for the last two months due to non-payment of bills.
LIFELINE OF two major offices under the Health Department has been cut off for all the wrong reasons. The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has barred all the incoming and outgoing calls of the telephone number at the chief medical officer's office for the last two months due to non-payment of bills.
The TB Unit at Beli Hospital, which is monitoring the Revised National TB Control Programme in the district, also remained disconnected for about a month for the same reason. What's more, the Leprosy Control Unit at the Colvin Hospital is also running without any landline connection.
The CMO office telephone bills dated August 7, October 7 and December 12, 2005 amounting to a total Rs 23,447 have not been paid by the department due to insufficient budget. Due to non-payment of bills the outgoing and incoming calls were barred in the first week of December.
Staff of the CMO office said that several reminders were sent to the DG (Health) for releasing the budget for payment of telephone dues. But no action had been taken due to which the government health programmes and other routine functioning were getting badly affected at the CMO office, said a Health Department official.
He said that every year separate budget was provided to the department under rural health and district family planning programme. The former chief medical officer often used to manage funds from other heads for the payment of telephone bills. But after his transfer, no efforts were made to clear these dues, he said.
"Incidentally, the same number was also shared by the District Epidemic Control Unit to monitor diarrhoea, malaria and other diseases in the district. The deputy CMOs also do not have any official connection and they too were using this number to monitor health services in rural area," he added.
However, the same situation also prevailed at the TB Unit at Beli Hospital which is managing the Revised National TB Control Programme (RNTCP) in the district.
"After the district magistrate issued directives to daily submit report of the TB patients approached under the RNTCP, we have to make calls from our personal mobile to collect the figure from 10 TB units as far as from Shankargarh, Karchhana and Koraon," said a TB Unit employee.
However, a medical officer posted at the TB Unit said that the telephone connection would soon be restored at the TB Unit at Beli Hospital, as the bills had been paid.
