Ludhiana’s Health Department saw various ups and downs during 2024. It continued to face the problem of shortage of staff and infrastructure while the announcement for setting up of an ESIC medical college came as a ray of hope for the city.
The Lows
Patient shares bed with a corpse
While last year the death of a patient after falling off the stretcher rocked the Civil Hospital and caused stir in the institution, this year in April, the hospital was again in the news for a wrong reason. A patient admitted to the emergency ward was forced to share bed with a corpse for more than 30 minutes. The incident again brought to light the poor state of affairs at the hospital and the shortage of staff and infrastructure.
Staff shortage continues
The hospital continued to grapple with staff shortage but no initiative was taken by the department to overcome the issue. The emergency ward of the hospital also continue to face shortage of staff. The hospital is working without a forensic expert, one radiologist, one medicine specialist, one surgeon and otter departments are also facing acute staff shortage, including nursing and Class IV.
ICU not operational
During his visit to the city on various instances during this year, Health Minister Balbir Singh continued to repeat the same old promise of making the ICU at the Civil Hospital functional and also announced to start neonatal intensive care by January 2025 but only time will tell if these promises will be fulfilled or not. He has been making these promises since last year. The intensive care unit, along with ventilators, set up during the Covid-19 pandemic are gathering dust for want of trained staff.
Expired medicines found at Samrala hospital
The callous attitude of staff at the Samrala Civil Hospital became palpitable as expired medicines worth lakhs were found lying in a storeroom in September. The medicines had expired in 2021-2022. These are sanctioned according to the hospital’s demand but how medicines in such large quantities remained unused, was the question that went unanswered.
Indefinite strike by PCMS doctors
Punjab Civil Medical Services (PCMS) doctors went on an indefinite strike in September which last for seven days and crippled the government healthcare sector completely. The unresolved issues of doctors included stalled Assured Career Progressions scheme, pending 6th CPC arrears and security at workplace, among other demands. Patients had a difficult time during the strike.
The Highs
City to get medical college
The thing to cheer about amid the poor medical infrastructure was the announcement of the city getting its first government medical college. The new medical college will be established by the Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) under the Union Ministry of Labour and Employment with the intake of 50 UG MBBS seats. The administration has shortlisted three sites for the setting up the college.
Hospital starts functioning
Finally after 10 years, the Urban Primary Health Centre (UPHC) located at the Civil Surgeon’s office was made operational. Currently, ESIC dispensary and office of the Health Department were located here. The health minister inaugurated the hospital in December. Though 30-bed hospital was started at the UPHC located at the Civil Surgeon’s office in December but staff of the hospital is on deputation. Only time will tell if the department is able to sustain the working of the hospital or not.
Foot clinic at CMCH
A vascular and diabetic foot clinic was inaugurated at the Christian Medical College and Hospital. Among various complications associated with diabetes, diabetic foot is one of the most debilitating.
First surrogacy case conducted at DMCH
The Dayanand Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) in October initiated the first-ever surrogacy case under the Surrogacy (Regulation) Act, 2021. The landmark case was conducted under the expert supervision of Dr Ashima Taneja.