Civil society organisations have demanded appointment of a heart specialist in the District Headquarters Hospital (DHH) in Baleswar.
They said even though the DHH is used as a hospital for Fakir Mohan Medical College, yet unfortunately it didn’t have even a single cardiac specialist. As a result, patients are referred to Cuttack and Bhubaneswar and often die on the way, they alleged.
They claimed that between April 2020 and March 2021 as many as 45,000 patients visited the medicine ward of the Baleswar DHH for treatment of various ailments out of which nearly 7,000 including many of them with cardiac problems were referred to either Cuttack or Bhubaneswar. And several of them met untimely death due to delay in administration of emergency care during transportation over a distance 250-300 km.
Reports said there is no heart specialist as such in the DHH. The lone doctor who sees the patients as heart specialist is not qualified for the discipline. And further, he doesn’t reside in Baleswar as he visits two other districts, Mayurbhanj and Bhadrak too. He hardly remains in the DHH for 2-3 days in a week.
Consequently, the patients, mainly the poor ones, face a tough time getting medical care for cardiac ailments. Either, he has to go to private doctors or visit Cuttack or Bhubaneswar on their own expenses.
Niranjan Parida, a functionary of Baleswar Government Medical College and Hospital Action Committee said it was a very sensitive and key healthcare issue of not having a single cardiac doctor in the DHH.
Patients face a lot of difficulties in want of a qualified doctor even though the DHH was operational as a medical college hospital.
“Besides heart specialists, other associated modern equipment including testing and treating should be installed in Baleswar without delay,” demanded Parida. District Project Manager, NHM, Anil Mohanty said that there was no specialist for heart in the DHH, Baleswar. And the doctor seeing the patients visits two other districts in a week too.
Meanwhile, civil society organisations like Ama Balasore, Mona among others have submitted memorandums to the district administration in this regard.