In-patient service to begin soon: Minister

AURANGABAD: Guardian minister Deepak Sawant, who was in the city for the Independence Day celebrations on Wednesday, said the in-patient services at the Chikalthana District Civil Hospital would be open to the general public in a month’s time.

Sawant, who is also the state public health minister, reviewed the services at the district civil hospital. When asked as to when would the hospital start functioning in a full fledged manner, Sawant said it would be fully operational in a month’s time.

However, district civil surgeon Archana Bhonsle said that they had not received any directive from the state government about starting the IPD services. She attributed the delay in the functioning of the in-patient services to the lack of medicines. “The in-patient services will be started as soon as medicine stocks are available,” said Bhonsle.

Though it has been two years since the hospital building at Chikalthana came into being, its inauguration has been delayed by one or the other reason.

The formal handover of the building was taken by erstwhile district civil surgeon on December 3. Ever since the hospital opened its out-patient services to the general public on June 25, the hospital has catered to 13,500 OPD patients till August 14, said Bhonsle.

“We have around 500 OPD patients every day. We have the medicines available required by the out-patient services. The Aurangabad branch of Indian Medical Association has donated Rs 70,000 to the hospital for medicine procurement,” she added.

Asked if enough staff has been hired for the full-fledged functioning of the hospital, Bhonsle said the process of recruitment of Class I officers as specialists was on. The hospital was also awaiting arrival of certain equipment.