Chandigarh, October 15
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Punjab took stern notice of non-payment of salaries to doctors, nurses and staff posted in rural dispensaries of the state for the last four months, stating that the government health services in villages were severely disrupted but the ruling Congress did not care. In a statement issued from the party headquarters here on Friday, senior AAP leader and MLA Aman Arora questioned the Channi government that in the field of health services; the government has left the people of the state entirely at the mercy of physicians and expensive private hospitals. “Why doesn’t Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi, who pretends to be in public, see the rural dispensaries and government hospitals in the state,” he questioned.
Not far away, the Chief Minister should at least visit the ESI dispensary in Mohali, government hospitals and rural dispensaries in Kharar, Morinda, Kurali, Ropar and Sri Chamkaur Sahib; to enlighten the people about the condition of these hospitals, said Arora. He said the government dispensaries and the hospitals themselves were on ventilators, what else can be expected for the treatment of ordinary patients there. How will the doctors and staff; who have not been paid for 4 months, treat patients in such a state of mental distress, he questioned.
The AAP leader alleged that for their own benefit and in collaboration with the private hospital mafia, the Congress and the SAD-BJP government had completely ruined the government health services in Punjab, whereas till the year 1980, Punjab’s health services were the best in the country. Arora said at that time all the doctors were serving in all the 4,400 sanctioned posts of doctors in government hospitals. Despite the increase in population, there are still 4,400 sanctioned posts, out of which 1,000 posts of doctors have been lying vacant for a long time. Of these, 516 were for specialist doctors, which were abolished by the previous SAD-BJP government. As a result, not all health centers have a single specialist doctor, he said.
Questioning the health policy of the state government, Aman Arora said that while the Rural Development and Panchayat Department was failing miserably to run the rural dispensaries properly, so why aren’t all the dispensaries being taken back so far and handed over to the health department at once? He said the rural dispensaries were struggling between the panchayat and health department. Out of a total 1,186 rural dispensaries in all the 23 districts, the Panchayat Department was handing over the dispensaries to the Health Department in shares. Therefore, the remaining 600 dispensaries should also be handed over to the health department without any delay; so that the health department does not run away from its responsibility to provide better health services in the rural areas, said Arora.
Advising the Punjab government to adopt the health model of Delhi’s Arvind Kejriwal government in providing health services, Aman Arora said that the AAP’s National Convener and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has given a second guarantee to the people of Punjab about the transformation of government health services. He said under the second guarantee, better public healthcare services will be given with 16,000 ‘pind clinics’ to be opened in all villages, wards and cities of the state on the lines of Delhi’s mohalla clinics; on formation of the AAP government in Punjab. Arora said the infrastructure of the existing government hospitals will also be revamped with the setting up of new world-class government hospitals which will outdo the private ones. He said that free and best treatment facilities at government hospitals in Punjab will be provided with medicines, tests and surgeries; all free of cost. Also, large numbers of doctors, nurses and staff will be recruited and they will never starve for salaries, he added.
