CUTTACK: A PIL has been filed in the Orissa High Court seeking judicial intervention into reopening of the outdoor patient department (OPD) at the MKCG MCH in Berhampur, which has remained closed for over a month now.
In order to contain the spread of Covid-19 in Ganjam, Collector Vijay Amruta Kulange had on July 7 imposed certain restrictions on the functioning of MKCG MCH including closure of the OPD.
Berhampur-based Bharatiya Bikash Parishad’s president Surendra Panigrahi filed the petition on Monday. Incidentally, the MCH authorities had decided to open the OPD on August 10 at a high level meeting last week.
At the meeting it was decided that the departmental OPD would be opened in the respective indoor building of MKCG like Medicine in PMR building and rest departments like TB and CD, Skin and VD, Psychiatric in their indoor patient department (IPD). The OPD of the rest departments was to function from their respective places as before.
The Flu/Fever Clinic was to start functioning in the old Indoor building.
However, the decision is yet to be implemented as the Collector had not revoked the OPD shutdown order.
In his petition Panigrahi has said a large number of patients was being deprived of treatment facilities as all private hospitals and clinics are closed.
More than 200 non-Covid- 19 patients have died due to lack of treatment, he alleged in the petition.
With patients from Ganjam, Gajapati, Kandhamal and Khurda districts and some bordering districts in Andhra Pradesh depending on the MKCG MCH, its OPD draws nearly 4000 patients in normal days, the petition said, seeking the Court’s direction to reopen the facility.