The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : ‘Our agony still continues’

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Tuesday, Mar 11, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

‘Our agony still continues’

The CGHS dispensary No.12 is located on the first floor in Dilsukhnagar abutting a service road of 10 feet width. The staircase is very narrow and steep.

The present accommodation is quite inadequate and some times there’s no space even to stand. There are over 6,500 beneficiaries and nearly 30,000 people who avail the services. The worst suffers are old people who cannot climb the steep and narr ow stairs.

Even though there is justification to open a new dispensary as per the norms, yet the authorities refused to open another dispensary. The proposal to shift it to a new building was sent to Delhi but the sanction never materialised despite letters from MPs and Central Ministers. Our agony still continues.

The latest torture technique is on account of a stand-off between the corporate hospitals and CGHS authorities. Only two hospitals -- Apollo in Chandrayangutta and NIMS in Punjagutta -- are authorised to admit emergency cases. It takes at least one hour to reach NIMS due to heavy traffic and if any body ventures to take emergency cases to NIMS, the doctors may declare the patient ‘brought dead’.

Recently CGHS authorities nominated afresh a number of diagnostic centres. But there is not a single one between Chaderghat and Vanasthalipuram.

The most astonishing thing is CGHS authorities refer pensioners to government hospitals like Osmania and Gandhi where we are treated with contempt.

We are reminded that these hospitals are not subordinate institutions to comply with CGHS letters and we are asked to seek treatment along with other patients. Some other doctors argued that since the pensioners are covered by CGHS they are ineligible for any special treatment and throw authorisation letters into dustbins.

We represented these issues to all the MPs and the MLAs and even to the President of India as a last resort. We were surprised to know that the President’s Secretariat promptly acknowledged our representation and informed that the same had been forwarded to Ministry of Health for appropriate action. But nothing has happened so far.

N. Venkateswarlu,

Convener, Senior Citizens Forum, CGHS Dispensary No. XII Chaitanyapuri

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