CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court on Tuesday directed the state director of medical education and training (DMET) to consider a petition seeking the reopening of the ‘sleep disorder clinic’ at the SCB medical college and Hospital (SCBMCH) which has been closed for more than five years.
Mrinalini Padhi, a high court lawyer, had filed a PIL after there was no response to her representation to the chief minister and authorities concerned in October last year. While appearing in person, Padhi submitted before the court that the functioning of the clinic was necessary as there has been a 20 per cent increase in cases of sleep disorders, particularly among young adults after the Covid pandemic.
While disposing of the petition, the division bench of Chief Justice S Muralidhar and Justice Gourishankar Satapathy directed the DMET to examine the petitioner’s representation and take a decision on the issue. The decision should be communicated to her within four weeks of the hearing.
According to the petition, the ‘sleep disorder clinic’ set up in the physiology department of the SCBMCH started functioning in March 2013. The hospital authorities opened an OPD for people with sleep disorders in November 2015, after there was a high inflow of patients. Nearly 2,600 patients with sleep disorders were treated in the outdoor facility by the time it was shut down on December 23, 2017.
The physiology department had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Kharagpur and Kanpur for the upgradation and modernisation of the clinic to deal with 88 types of sleep disorders, the petitioner stated. The patients suffering from sleep disorders are being deprived of availing treatment as the only government-run clinic in the state has remained closed, Padhi submitted.