INSPECTION: Deputy Commissioner Pankajkumar Pandey inspecting the supply of medicines in the storeroom in the Government General Hospital in Gulbarga city on Thursday.

GULBARGA: Deputy Commissioner Pankajkumar Pandey imposed a penalty of Rs. 50,000 on a contractor who had been entrusted with the cleaning operations in the Government General Hospital here for his failure in discharging his duties. He also issued a warning that his contract would be cancelled if the situation continued.

Mr. Pandey who conducted a surprise visit to the hospital saw the sorry state of affairs in the 750-bed hospital and pulled up the doctors for the lack of sanitation. He also suspended a class D employee for his failure to keep the toilets clean in the general ward.

District surgeon Susheela who accompanied the Deputy Commissioner on the visits to the wards, operation theatre, mortuary, storeroom and outpatient department told Mr. Pandey that cleaning of the hospital had been outsourced and the contractor had failed to meet the contractual obligations.

Taking exception to the failure of the contractor to maintain cleanliness in and around the hospital, Mr. Pandey said the hospital wards and passageway had not been cleaned properly. During his visit to the general ward, the official took note of the stench and on inquiring was told by the patients that the toilet had not been cleaned for days.

Mr. Pandey was told by the district surgeon and other officials of the hospital that the responsibility of keeping the toilets clean was the duty of the group D employee attached to the ward. The official ordered the immediate suspension of the employee and directed the district surgeon to depute other employees to clean the toilet in the general ward.

Mr. Pandey inspected the medicine storeroom and the stock register and directed the doctors to purchase medicines which were in short supply from the funds available under the user charges.

The official asked the district surgeon to take up repairs of the central air condition facility for the operation theatres, which has been under repair for the past several months. A sum of Rs. 1.5 lakh was required to take up repairs of the central air condition facility. He directed the district surgeon to take up the repairs of the compressor in the mortuary to make the cold storage facility in the mortuary functional and have chairs outside the mortuary. For the purchase of other emergency equipment, Mr. Pandey said a committee consisting of the district surgeon, district health officer and the dean of the Basaveshwar Teaching and General Hospital had been constituted to ensure that the right equipment was purchased.

Protest

Members of the Dalit Panthers of India on Thursday staged an hour-long rasta roko on the Gulbarga-Sedam inter-State highway opposite the Government General Hospital demanding better facilities in the Government Hospital for poor patients and maintenance of cleanliness in the hospital.

Deputy Commissioner promised that facilities at the hospital would be improved.

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