Nadda alarmed over insanitation

SHIMLA, June 24: Growing insanitation, littered bio-chemical waste and leakages from toilets making their way into the hospital kitchen, that pose a serious threat of outbreak of infectious diseases in the local Indira Gandhi Medical College Hospital, left Health Minister N. P. Nadda with no option but to undertake a long inspection of the hospital wards and the college complex today.

Accompanied by newly appointed principal N. K. Sarin and medical superintendent K. S. Rana, Nadda spent over three hours personally in various hospital wards and interacted with patients, attendants and hospital staff to know their problems. It was insanitation, that drew his attention and he directed hospital authorities to submit a detailed follow-up action report to him within a week. The hospital incinerator has not been working for the past few months. Dirty toilets and wards also alarmed the minister.

The minister directed the authorities to immediately identify a new dumping site for refuse which littered the area near the blood bank and also the old OPD chambers. “The hospital should not be a cause of infection but for cure,” the minister told the sanitary staff and warned that they would be taken to task, if things did not improve in the next few days. Nadda also inspected the hospital kitchen, where leakages from the toilets and the roof posed a threat of outbreak of infectious diseases. Later, at a meeting with senior faculty members, Nadda assured that he would look into the suggestion of shifting the Kamla Nehru Hospital to the IGMC and also into providing minimum basic facilities to doctors. The normal practice is to remove tonnes of garbage that litters the hospital complex for days together just hours before a minister’s visit, while floors are swept with care.