Lone doctor, nurses soldier on without security
MANSA: In June, a psychiatrist at the drug de-addiction centre in Mansa went on leave for not being able to take the pressure of working simultaneously at three places. Besides her work at the civil hospital in Sangrur, she was assigned additional charge at the Mansa Civil Hospital and the district’s drug de-addiction centre.
A month on, the lone medical officer manages the rehab and de-addiction centres.
“Yes, I’m coming, please give him the dose,” Dr Faazal Singh Sangha tells the paramedic at the 50-bed rehab centre, while he checks on cases at the deaddiction centre. Dr Sangha, who joined on June 6, arrives at the de-addiction centre on the city’s outskirts every morning, attends to an average of 30 drug addicts a day at the OPD and then heads to the rehab centre, where he works till late in the evening.
A nurse at the Khyala de-addiction centre finds it difficult to manage the indoor patients in the absence of a security guard. “The patients hurl abuses and even start removing their clothes. It is difficult to manage them in the absence of guards. All four posts of guard are vacant,” she says.
The centre has only 10 beds, which is inadequate.
“We are helpless in admitting patients most of the times as all 10 beds are normally occupied,” says an attendant, requesting anonymity.