STRICKEN BY APATHY

Four years ago, the district hospital at Kannauj in Uttar Pradesh added a trauma centre at the cost of Rs 15 crore.

- Ashish Misra

The new facility battled operational hiccups and a shortage of doctors from day one and could never serve its purpose. Now, it’s fully functional—as a police outpost.

The patient examination room at the centre’s entrance is the office of Pratap Singh Lodhi, the outpost in­charge. The wards have been turned into living quarters for policemen; the post­operation ward has become a dump yard. The ramp leading to the first floor is being used to park police motorcycles. Beds and medical equipment lie locked in the X­ray room. The apathy is glaring and so is the waste of public money.

Kannauj MP Subrata Pathak, of the BJP, and Anil Dohre, the Samajwadi Party (SP) MLA from Kannauj Sadar, blame each other for the failure to appoint medical staff at the trauma centre. Krishna Swaroop, the chief medi­ cal officer (CMO) of Kannauj, offers hope, but no timeline. “There has been correspondence with the state gov­ernment. Staff will be deployed and the trauma centre will become operational soon,” says Swaroop. Defunct hospitals dot several districts of UP. Of the total 165 district hospitals, six with 100 or more beds are closed. In over 50 hospitals, one or more specialised facilities are not operational due to shortage of staff. It’s an alarming reality to contend with when the state is battling a rising number of Covid cases.

According to the health department, as of August 18, UP had reported 50,242 active Covid cases and 2,585 deaths, including two cabinet ministers of the Yogi Adityanath government. The total cases numbered 109,607 as of August 18.