Civil Hospital grapples with fund crunch Owes arrears over Rs 45 lakh for purchases it made this financial year; equipment not repaired for long Rachna Khaira Jalandhar, August 30 The Civil Hospital, Jalandhar, is facing a severe financial crunch as it has to pay arrears more than Rs 45 lakh for the purchases it made during the current financial year. Most of the amount was spent for buying laboratory reagents and X-ray films. The hospital authorities are unable to get the compressor of three ventilators repaired which will cost them around Rs 90,000 and also requires a sanction from the Punjab Health Systems Corporation(PHSC). “We are facing a cash crunch as we do not get any grant for the maintenance of the facilities in the hospital. We only get an upgrade grant from the Punjab Health Systems Corporation. For the maintenance work such as repairing ventilators etc, we have to spend from the user charges that we collect from patients and various contractors,” said Jagjit Singh Cheema, Medical Superintendent, Civil Hospital. Cheema said since he only had the power to sanction up to Rs 50,000 at a time, the sanction for the ventilator repair has to come from the PHSC. “We have already written to Punjab Health Systems Corporation for approval and we will get the ventilators repaired on priority basis as soon as we receive the approval,” he added. However, he failed to give a satisfactory reply as to why the approval for the repair has not been granted by the Mission Director of Punjab Health Systems Corporation even after two months. The 450-bedded hospital receives around Rs 14 lakh per month as user charges from patients for registration, file, OT and various laboratory tests. More than 1,200 people visit the hospital every day on an average. The hospital also earns by granting contracts of canteen and parking lots etc inside its complex . Out of this, around 2.5 lakh are spent on buying laboratory reagents to conduct various medical tests. Almost same amount is spent on buying X-ray films and the rest of the amount is spent for maintenance works such as buying furniture, repairing equipment and construction of wards.
Posted on: Wed, 30 Oct 2013 15:31:56 +0000
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