CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court has fixed March 2 for taking stock of the status of equipment and machines at all the State-run medical college and hospitals. The division bench of Acting Chief Justice Sanju Panda and Justice SK Sahoo directed the Superintendents of hospitals in seven medical colleges and two post graduate institutes to submit status reports by then.
"Since urgent attention is needed for a wholesome approach to provide better health services in the State of Odisha, it has become necessary to ascertain whether all the required equipment/machines in the hospitals run by the State Government are available or not," the bench observed.
The Court has also asked for details on steps taken for procurement, conditions of such equipment/machines, whether any such equipment/machines are required to be repaired/replaced, whether any equipment/machine is lying unused on account of non-availability of technical staff and whether sufficient staff/experts/technicians are available to run it .
It has directed the Superintendents of the nine State-run hospitals ‘to collect specific data from the heads of departments of the respective departments’.
The Court issued the direction while hearing a PIL registered suo motu by the Registrar (Judicial) on the basis of media reports which had alleged that the cancer patients at Acharya Harihar Regional Cancer Centre (AHRCC) in Cuttack are unable to get proper health facilities due to non-utilisation of some costly machines and defunct machines.
The Chemotherapy and Radiation Therapy wings of MKCG MCH are also facing problems to serve cancer patients due to scarcity of staff, technician and equipments and even Hi-tech Centrifuge machines in the blood bank of MKCG-MCH are lying defunct. One of the three CT Scan machines at SCB-MCH was defunct, the media reports alleged.
The Court also expressed concern over the mental agony and trauma of patients, suffering from serious ailments that are denied the free diagnostic services due to non-functioning of equipment / machines.
Among those directed by the Court to file status reports on equipment/machines included Superintendent Acharya Harihar Post Graduate Institute of Cancer, Superintendent MKCGMCH-Berhampur, Superintendent of SCBMCH-Cuttack, Director, VSS Institute of Medical Sciences and Research-Burla, Superintendent of PRMMCH-Baripada, Superintendent SLNMCH-Koraput, Superintendent Fakir Mohan MCH-Balasore, BB Medical College and Hospital-Balangir and Superintendent Sardar Vallabhabhai Patel Post Graduate Institute of Paediatrics at Cuttack.