During a late-night surprise inspection at Kharar Civil Hospital on Tuesday, Kharar sub-divisional magistrate Gurmandar Singh discovered that the mother-child care section was lacking a doctor.
The clinic was opened by Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann last year, and the nurses there have disclosed that they handle routine deliveries in the absence of doctors.
The morning shift for the two doctors on call for this unit is from 8 a.m. to 2 a.m. "We take care of routine birth cases and only give doctors a call at night when necessary. During checking, a contractual nurse informed the SDM that they arrived on call.
Harjit Singh meanwhile claimed that he was compelled to hold his son in his arms since the hospital's wheelchairs were destroyed and that his son was sent from Kurali hospital to Kharar civil hospital because there was not enough blood available.
The investigation was carried out after Singh was notified of several healthcare complaints as well as a significant number of referrals from Kharar Civil Healthcare to Chandigarh government hospitals or Phase-6 Civil Hospital.
SDM stated that after an investigation, suitable action would be taken on Wednesday in response to a question on whether the doctors would face consequences for allowing the nurses to perform the delivery in their absence.
While the inspection was primarily routine, we also received some complaints, so we were more interested in finding out why there were so many cases being forwarded to other hospitals. Apart from the lack of a doctor in the mother-child care department, the staff was found to be attentive and all the facilities were found to be in place. No delivery may occur while they are not there. We are going to discuss this with the physicians first thing tomorrow morning.Gurmandar Singh, Sub-Divisional Magistrate, Kharar
(Input from various sources)
(Rehash/Priyanka Pandey/MSM)