Bijay Charak
Early Times Report
Jammu, Aug 19: The emergency laboratory of Government Medical College and Hospital (GMC&H) Jammu is defunct for the past 15 days, causing inconvenience to the patients and their attendants.
The emergency block of GMC&H daily receives hundreds of patients who are referred from district hospitals of Jammu division to here for better treatment. As the laboratory is not working, the people are forced to climb to 5th floor to get the tests done.
Hospital insiders alleged there was a nexus between some officials and private labs. "The officials get money from private operators. That is why despite passing of 15 days the technical snag in the lab was not rectified by the hospital administration," they said. While the lab is defunct, people rush to private clinics for the tests. Ashok Sharma, an attendant, said his relative was referred by district hospital Reasi to the GMC&H for treatment.
He said when he visited the doctors in emergency, they suggested some tests immediately, but the employees working in emergency lab collected the sample and said the report would be ready after five hours.
"The doctors wanted the reports immediately but the lab technicians said that due to the defunct emergency laboratory they collect 30-40 samples and then forward them to another laboratory which is situated in the fifth floor," Sharma said, as he heaped abuses on the government.
When contacted, the head of GMC&H's Biochemistry Department, Dr. Amarjeet Singh Bhatia said the analyzer machine's circuit has gone kaput.
"I have already written to the Medical Superintendent and the Principal about the issue," Dr Bhatia told Early Times. |
