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Milk goes off patients’ diet

CUTTACK: Hike in milk price has put patients of SCB Medical College and Hospital here in a sticky situation. The hospital authorities have stopped providing free milk to them for last five days as the Orissa Milk Federation (Omfed) has hiked its price from Rs. 17 to Rs, 20 a litre from June 1.

“We have an agreement with the Omfed to provide the required milk to the hospital at a concession. We even pay the amount to it in advance. But all of a sudden, it hiked its price by Rs. 3 a litre and stopped the supply,” said hospital superintendent D.N. Moharana.

The hospital requires at least 600 litres of milk every day. It provides half a litre of milk to each patient daily. All the 13 departments of the hospital have a total of 1,200 beds.

The hospital diet committee headed by the district Collector has approved to provide free diet worth Rs. 20 to each patient daily. The diet includes bread, biscuit, egg, milk and fruits.

The proposal to provide cooked food with adequate nutrition was not possible within the approved price.

Prof. Moharana, however, maintained that following stopping of milk supply by Omfed to the hospital from June 2, we are compensating the patients with other items such as fruits and biscuits.

He also added that with the approval from the diet committee, the hospital is now negotiating with private milk suppliers to resume the free milk distribution to the patients.

“Prithviraj Dairy has agreed to supply us the required milk at a cost of Rs. 18 a litre and very soon we will sign an agreement with it,” Prof. Moharana told The Hindu on Saturday.

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