SAMBALPUR: Attendants of patients at the Kuchinda sub-divisional hospital will no longer have to struggle for food during the lockdown. A doctor couple, working in the hospital as medical officers, has started providing them cooked food once in a day.
With eateries outside the hospital and Aahaar centre closed since March 24, they depended on dry food, biscuits and the food provided by hospital administration to patients. Seeing their plight, doctors Satya Prakash Dora and his wife Jyotsna Pradhan decided to provide them cooked food till the lockdown ends. They began the initiative on March 30.
The couple cooks the food in their house and distributes the food packets among attendants of patients during lunch. “We pack extra food in each packet so that they can have it as an early dinner,” said Dr Jyotsna.The 50-bed hospital provides healthcare to people of Kuchinda NAC, Kuchinda block, Bamra block and Jamankira block, all under the tribal dominated Kuchinda sub-division.
Dr Satya Prakash said the Government provides food for patients admitted to the hospital but their attendants had been facing problems due to the on-going lockdown. “We saw almost all the patients sharing the food provided to them with their attendants,” he said. Moved by the sight, they decided to serve cooked food to the attendants.
He said the inflow of patients to the hospital has decreased due to the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown. Currently, there are around 30 persons who have been attending their near and dear ones in the hospital. “It is not an expensive affair to provide food to 30 persons and it is a small contribution from us in this period of crisis,” he said.