ESIC hospital gasping for Doctors

ROURKELA: Health services seem to have crumbled at the ESIC model hospital at Rourkela with allegations of mismanagement and non-availability of specialist doctors making rounds even as the hospital has been reduced to a referral health unit.The demand for the proposed medical college and hospital of ESIC at Rourkela continues to be a political issue with no real benefits to the Insured Persons (IPs) of the industrial district of Sundargarh.Reports said the 50-bed model hospital of the ESIC is perennially stuck with inadequate specialist doctors and para-medical staff. It is also faced with inadequate supplies of medicines and other required infrastructure. If this is not enough, the family of a patient, F C Sahu has alleged that he was administered expired medicines. With the IPs failing to avail of better health care, the issue of the ESIC’s Medical College and Hospital, which is sub-judice, has again come to the fore. Orissa unit CITU general secretary Bishnu Mohanty said the present model hospital is no substitute for the advanced health care needs of the IPs. He had moved the Orissa High Court for the medical college and hospital at Rourkela. The HC had issued notices to the State and Central governments seeking their response on the issue. But till then, he demanded  better health services at the model hospital. In the absence of specialists, IPs from the district and the adjoining industrial and mining districts of Jharsuguda, Sambalpur and Keonjhar are forced to travel hundreds of kilometres for relief, he said. This despite the fact that ESIC is collecting whopping amounts from them, he added.