In Punjab health minster’s home town, children of one third Punjab are suffering
Kanwar Inder Singh/ royalpatiala.in News/ August 17,2023
The Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India, under the National Health Mission had launched the Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK), an innovative and ambitious initiative, which envisages Child Health Screening and Early Intervention Services, a systemic approach of early identification and link to care, support and treatment.
This program involves screening of children from birth to 18 years of age for 4 Ds- Defects at birth, Diseases, Deficiencies and Development delays, spanning 32 common health conditions for early detection and free treatment and management, including surgeries at tertiary level.
These services are provided free of cost, thus helping their families reduce out of pocket expenditure incurred on the treatment.
In Punjab health minster’s home town children of one third Punjab are suffering. As per available information, from the last few months, children of around 7-8 districts of Punjab enrolled with Government Medical College, Patiala under RBSK scheme are suffering as they are not getting any medicine, proper treatment from the Rajindra Hospital or the empanelled medicine supplier as the supplier has stopped giving the medicine due to non clearance of their pending dues and the non-availability of medicines at Jan Aushadhi Kendra of the Rajindra Hospital.
Three government medical colleges at Patiala, Amritsar and Faridkot were authorized for the treatment of children under RBSK. Almost 7-8 districts were attached with each medical college.
Govt Medical College-cum- Rajindra Hospital, Patiala is empanelled for treatment of children with serious ailments that are not treatable at govt dispensaries, civil hospitals, under RBSK scheme. There are six departments of Govt Rajindra Hospital namely Eye, ENT, Cardiology, Plastic Surgery, Orthopedics and Pediatrics that are authorized to treat the children for various ailments and have a department wise nodal officer. Govt Rajindra Hospital Medical Superintendent is the incharge of the scheme.
As per available information Dr Manjit Singh was appointed the Nodal officer for ENT, Dr Haroim for Orthopedics, Dr Sachin for Eye, Dr Kuldeep Garg for Plastic surgery , Dr Jasvir Singh for Pediatrics and Dr Harcharan Singh for cardiology were appointed the first nodal officers of their department.
“Even medicine for seizures (Mirgi) (a sudden, uncontrolled burst of electrical activity in the brain. It can cause changes in behavior, movements, feelings and levels of consciousness. Having two or more seizures at least 24 hours apart that don’t have a known cause is considered to be epilepsy) which is a low priced medicine is not being given to children” said a father of a children suffering from seizures .
When contacted Dr Hariom of the orthopedics department he said “ I am at PGI and moreover Dr Ravinder Kumar Banga is the new nodal officer of RBSK. When contacted Dr Banga he said “ I had just taken over as nodal officer of RBSK. I don’t have any information about the non-availability of medicines or others items of ortho department to the children under RBSK. For more information contact Dr Hariom as he remained nodal officer before me.”
When contacted Dr Bharti , who is the nodal officer for plastic surgery said “ in my tenure as nodal officer of plastic surgery , not a single case is treated under RBSK.”
When contacted the medical superintendent of Govt Rajindra Hospital, Dr HS Reikhi he said “we are working on it and planning to make new strategy as our doctors were on leave, so it get delayed. We are going to terminate the contract with all the suppliers. After the new strategy is made, all medicines will be given to children from Jan-Aushidhi kendra. This is a central govt scheme and our huge ammount is pending towards the central govt.”
When contacted the supplier, who supplied hearing aids to the children enrolled under RBSK said “ our firm has not supplied the hearing aid machines to any patient for the last two years. We have a pending bill of Rs 3.00 lacs. The patients came and inquire about the availability of hearing aids machine under the scheme. How can he purchase a hearing aid pair that costs Rs 80,000 in open market and we supplied the same at Rs 35,000 under RBSK as they are poor people and some even can’t afford the bus fare. ”
When contacted the supplier, who supplied medicines to the RBSK patients, said “we got the supply order contract through tendering process. With heavy heart we have stopped the supply of the medicines as our bill amounting to Rs 9.00 lacs are pending since around a year’s time. The department is not clearing the same. Even than we keep on giving the medicines, as we don’t want the children to suffer. But, finally in this financial year we gave up as have our own financial limitations and informed the authorities about our decision of not supplying the medicines.”
In Punjab health minster’s home town children of one third Punjab are suffering. When contacted health minister Dr Balbir Singh, he said “ we are facing some issues in central govt schemes. But, I don’t have any knowledge about the stoppage of medicines to the RBSK scheme patients. I’ll check it with concerned authorities and try to solve this issue at the earliest.”
