The delay in the arrival of Budget is causing problems to the management of Doon Women’s Hospital here as many vendors have expressed their inability to continue supplies due to pending payments. The hospital which is the biggest women hospital of the State owes more than Rs70 lakh to its various vendors. The sources revealed that the hospital needs to pay Rs25 lakh to vendors supplying medicines, Rs15 lakh for materials like reagents and Rs5.0 lakh to Uttarakhand Power Corporation limited (UPCl) in form electricity bills.
Similarly, the hospital owes Rs4.5 lakh to the vendor supplying food and Rs3.10 lakh to the Uttarakhand Poorva Sainik Kalyan Nigam limited (UPNl) for sanitation works. The hospital also pays salaries to the contractual staff; it needs to pay Rs3 lakh under this head. Hospital sources admit that these vendors are exerting pressure on the hospital administration to release their payments. Some companies’ medicine vending companies have threatened to stop the supplies if their payment is not released soon. The UPCl officers too are making daily visits to the hospital for their pending dues.
The Chief Medical Superintendent (CMS) of Doon Women Hospital Dr Chandra Pant accepted that delay in arrival of Budget is causing problems. She said that the Director General (DG) Medical Health department has been informed about the issue.
The annual Budget of the hospital is Rs4.21 crore out of which the hospital has received Rs3 crore in three quarterly installments. The fourth and final installment of the Budget is pending. It is worth mentioning here that the earlier the health department used to send the entire Budget of the hospital at the beginning of the financial year. This year however the finance department decided to provide the Budget at the end of every quarter which is causing problems to Government hospitals.