With just a week left for the Kanwad Mela to begin, the district health authorities seem to be the least prepared with the possibility of crores of devotees streaming into district on way to Haridwar city to fetch the holy water from Ganga.
The district administration is expecting a record number of pilgrims during the Kanwad Mela this time which lasts for a fortnight. However, the district hospitals are ill-equipped to take on any urgency with the scanty stock of medicines. Besides, they lack doctors. The number of ambulances available at them is woefully short of the required number. The health officials are worried over it, saying that these ambulances are meant to bring the patients from the Mela zone to the base hospitals or to the makeshift hospitals. Though temporary hospitals and primary treatment centres would come up once the stream of people starts dearth of doctors and ambulance facilities would make them meaningless, they say. In Roorkee Civil Hospital, only eight doctors are available while the number of the sanctioned posts is 32.
Speaking of the matter, CMO district hospital Dr B S Janpangi said, “Haridwar district has seven ambulances in three of its hospitals – Mela, Mahila and G D hospital. There is no chance that we would get any one of them. We would ask the state health department for more ambulances. But our last year’s experience was bad. Not a single ambulance was made available then. We have to manage things from the private hospitals.”
Asked about the scarcity of doctors, he said that the doctors’ crunch is a problem for the whole state.
However, hiring ambulances from the private facilities involves cost as they demand the market rate. last year, the district administration had demanded 28 doctors from the neighbouring states, but not a single doctor had been made available during the mela period. Medical needs of the devotees are addressed by the pharmacists and other paramedical staff members, sources say.