Joda: A hospital, set up by the Central government in 1978 at Joda in Keonjhar, has reportedly been in a comatose state due to shortage of doctors, staff nurse and lab technicians.
Reports said the Union labour ministry had set up this 50-bed hospital with an aim to provide healthcare facilities to people working in the mining and bidi-making sectors.
The Union labour ministry collects Rs 2 as revenue from each tonne of mineral from the Ministry of steel and mines.
Revenue worth Rs 1.5 crore is generated every month and goes to the labour welfare ministry.
Locals alleged that despite generation of revenue, the hospital has virtually been paralysed.
Medical officer of the hospital Sukant Chandra Das said that the hospital has six sanctioned posts for doctors, 13 posts for staff nurse and two laboratory technicians.
“But the hospital is run with only three doctors, four nurses. The X-ray and Radiology department in the hospital has been lying defunct for the last three years as no lab technicians have been appointed,” said Das.
Besides, an ultrasound machine worth Rs 5 lakh has been in disuse as no doctors has been trained on its operation, he added.
Another problem is that residential quarters on the premises of the hospital have been in bad shape.
Walls and ceilings of two quarters have cracked while they look like haunted houses.
For lack of machines, blood transfusion and related work have been halted for some time.
Groceries, vegetables, milks and eggs for patients are being purchased from shopkeepers on credit for the last seven months. Their payment has not been cleared, it was learnt.
People working in chromite, iron and manganese mines in the district are entitled to get healthcare facilities in the hospital. Even people working in mines in Jajpur and Sundargarh should be covered under its purview of services, it was demanded.
Earlier, two dispensaries used to work for mining workers at Jurudi and Guruda, but the central government has closed those units.
Locals alleged that political leaders have not paid attention to smooth function of the hospital.
A delegation of Joda Bikash Parishad had recently gone to New Delhi and met Keonjhar MP Sakuntala Laguri about the ailing central healthcare unit.
Laguri had apprised the Union Labour Ministry about it, but it yielded no results, said Niranjan Bohidar, the president of Joda Bikash Parishad.
Das said that he has intimated the Director general of the Union Labour Welfare Ministry and the Labour Commissioner in Bhubaneswar about the problems and miserable condition of the hospital.
Besides, he has dispatched a letter given by AITUC to the secretary of the Union Labour Welfare Ministry March 10.
Das also lamented that no steps had been taken to improve things at the Central hospital even though he had apprised the deputy welfare commissioner of the Labour department at Barbil.
PNN