NEW DELHI, 3 September 2003 — Bihar’s premier heart care center — the Indira Gandhi Institute of Cardiology — is gasping for breath. The institute, located on the premises of Patna Medical College Hospital, is in pitiable condition.
The echo machine, without which no heart care center can function, has not been working for over four months, and lack of maintenance has also led to the breakdown of a treadmill. The center has no money to pay for much-needed repairs.
The center’s second echo machine is not sophisticated enough and doctors fear it may break down any minute under the strain of constant use.
Similarly, the second treadmill is also not enough to cope with the daily demands patients place on it.
Four months ago the center had neither X-ray plates nor life-saving drugs to treat emergency patients. A small consignment of drugs and supplies has only recently arrived.
Patna’s leading heart care center also does not have a pharmacy. Patients have to look for the drugs its doctors prescribe all over the state capital.
In the intensive care unit of the center only one air-conditioner works, and there is no safe drinking water and no clean toilets.
According to the director of the institute, Dr. S.N. Mishra, everything was fine until March 31. Things started going bad after the state government decided to take away control of the institutes finances from its management and vested it with the superintendent of the Patna Medical College Hospital instead.
This decision cost the center time and money. Now the institute has to wait for days to get approval from the superintendent’s office even for such everyday articles as cotton wool and needles.
“I’m helpless. I have reported the matter to the finance officer, but nothing has been done,” said Mishra.
PMCH Superintendent R.P. Singh would not discuss the issue. “I am doing my best to meet my new responsibility,” he said.
