हिंदी
Dr Daljit S Cheema says govt should not waste more time and augment facilities in govt hospitals speedily
Chandigarh, May 5 , 2021 – The Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) today said it was extremely unfortunate that the Congress government had been unable to create ICU facilities in 17 out of 22 government hospitals in the State despite making claims of spending more than Rs 1,000 crore on upgrading medical infrastructure during the last one year.
In a statement here, former minister Dr Daljit Singh Cheema said media reports had exposed the Congress government claim of having upgraded the medical infrastructure in the State by pointing out that 17 out of the 22 districts in the State did not have a single ICU bed. He said it was even more shocking to know that except for five districts of Patiala, Faridkot, Amritsar, Jalandhar and Ludhiana, no government hospital of the state provided Level-3 care to critical patients.
Stating that all this was extremely distressing, Dr Cheema said “too much time has been wasted. The government has failed in its responsibility towards the people. It should not waste any more time and should augment the medical facilities in all government hospitals to ensure people were not forced to go in for very expensive treatment in private hospitals”.
The SAD leader asked the chief minister to first get the few hundred ventilators lying unused in the State installed. “Medical staff should be recruited on an emergency basis to run the ventilators”. He said besides this the government should focus on providing level three ICU facilities in all government hospitals to ensure critically ill patients have access to affordable health care.
Dr Cheema also emphasised the need to augment the number of dedicated Covid beds in the government sector having only 550 beds providing intensive care support including ventilators. He said the government should get into action. “A lot is being said. But nothing is being implemented on the ground. Punjabis expect their government to create additional medical facilities to deal with the twenty-fold increase in the number of patients. The government should also ensure regular supply of Oxygen to both government and private hospitals and ensure life saving drugs are available at base rate to patients”.
The SAD leader said the party was also doing its best to provide succour to Covid patients. He said SAD President Sukhbir Singh Badal had requested the Shiromani Committee to establish a 100 bed Covid care centre at Takth Sri Damdama Sahib. “The YAD has already established a Plasma Bank. We will take up other initiatives also in the coming days”, he added. EOM
