District Collector Balwant Singh asked the owners of the nursing homes and the clinics of the town and surrounding areas to obey law and run their units in close adherence to the guidelines.
He warned them of sealing their units within a month if any illegality was found at a health review meeting, where CDMO of Sambalpur Dr Minakshi Mohanty and all other senior officers of the department were present.
Singh, at the outset, updated the owners about the guidelines for running nursing homes. He directed them to keep adequate staff, qualified and trained nurses and doctors.
He further asked them to develop proper infrastructure and provide better services instead of minting money in the name of health services. Scientific disposal of bio-medical wastes also came up for discussion.
He further cautioned the clinic owners about the use of ultra sound machines and warned them to stop its misuse for sex determination.
He asked the owners to submit a list of the persons who have done ultra sounds in their respective nursing homes. “If someone gives information on clinics or nursing homes doing sex determination, then his identity will be kept secret,” Singh assured.
He further said that within a few days, the district administration would provide a pro-forma to all the nursing homes who would return it after furnishing all information so that the administration has details of the health services provided by them.