- Patients in the home district of the Chief Minister & Health Minister receive low-grade health services in government hospitals and dispensaries.
Chandigarh: Taking a serious note over the deteriorating health services under the Bhagwant Mann-led Punjab government, Leader of Opposition (LoP) and Senior Congress Leader, Partap Singh Bajwa on Wednesday said that the Punjab government seems to have been hell-bent on forcing the patients belonging to destitute sections of society to go to ridiculously expensive private hospitals, as the public health services in Punjab have been in dire straits.
Speaking about the health services in the home bastion of CM Baghwant Mann, LoP said that several rural dispensaries in the home district of CM, Sangrur are running without doctors, and nurses. It forces patients on the bottom rung of society in villages to either opt for overpriced private hospitals or travel far away to get subsidised health facilities in the urban localities.
On the kind of health facilities received by the residents of Patiala, Punjab Health Minister, Chetan Singh Jauramajra's home district, Bajwa said that the patients of the Rajindra Hospital Patiala have to deal with a scarcity of medicines every day. As per the media reports, it is the staff that has to face the wrath of patients owing to the non-availability of medicines. The Government Mata Kaushalya Hospital of the district categorically announced that only the patients with smartphones will get X-Ray services in the hospital because the hospital had run out of X-Ray films. In another such incident, poor patients at CHC Tripuri, district Patiala were charged for surgery. Following the news report in the media, the punishment that the SMO received was just a transfer.
"These are the kind of low-grade health services the residents in the home districts of Chief Minister and Health Minister are getting, which has left them in the lurch. The patients from deprived sections always remain at the receiving end owing to the sheer negligent approach of the AAP government", said Partap Singh Bajwa.
He said that there are innumerable instances that expose the so-called health model AAP government in Punjab. A highly inhuman incident occurred recently where a woman belonging to the Dalit community was denied admission to the ward of a civil hospital, Pathankot. Consequently, she gave birth to a baby girl on the floor of the hospital corridor. Meanwhile, the health department hesitates to share the outcome of the probe, which was announced right after the incident, with the media. However, National Commission for Scheduled Caste had also put the Civil Hospital on notice.