Tarn Taran centre fights staff crunch

TARNTARAN: It’s always a long wait at the Government Drug De-addiction and Rehabilitation Centre in Tarn Taran Civil Hospital.

Centre manager Rajive Kumar says there are only 20 beds, which are occupied all the time. “Besides staff, we need more beds. Three patients are on the wait list daily,” he says.

The centre has a psychiatrist, a counsellor and three nurses for the 20 patients. The centre charges ₹3,000 per patient for 15 days and Kumar says it had yet to receive any official intimation of free treatment to the needy.

The Outpatient Opioid Assisted Treatment (OOAT) centre has a medical officer, a counsellor and a nurse. Medical officer Dr Parminder Singh Sidhu says the two main OOAT centres in the district are at Tharu village and at Patti’s Bhagupur village. Patients are registered at these two centres though there are eight more OOAT clinics in the district.

“Nearly 100 patients visit the centre daily. It takes 15 minutes to register one patient. We manage to register 24 to 30 patients daily. It’s a must for newly registered patients to take medicines from the two main OOAT centres for three days. So, we’re handling 200 to 300 patients daily,” he says.

Dr Sidhu says the OOAT centres need another medical officer, a counsellor, a data entry operator and two staff nurses.