Balasore: Hundreds of in-patients, their relatives as well as attendants at the surgery ward in the district headquarters hospital (DHH) here are facing acute scarcity of clean water as the installed facility has been lying defunct since the last one year.
The patients and their relatives have no alternative but to fetch water from another facility which is some distance away as temperatures continue to soar. At times, those undergoing treatment have to stand in serpentine queues as it is the only drinking water facility available in close vicinity.
Every day, over 2,000 patients visit this hospital. Besides, there are hundreds of in-patients undergoing treatment here. For such a large number of patients and visitors, the DHH does not have adequate facilities to supply clean drinking water.
There are four cold drinking water facilities at the DHH, out of which one is at the ATM counter in front of the outdoor facility, the second at the medicine ward, the third at the surgery ward and the fourth at the Sishu Bhawan. Out of these four, three machines are working.
According to the general practice, voluntary organisations often install these facilities. However, the maintenance of the machines has to be done by the hospital administration from the Rogi Kalyan Samiti fund. But here, the authorities barely evince any sign of interest to get it fixed.
When asked, manager in-charge Debasmita Jena feigned ignorance about the issue and said, “If it is defunct, it will get repaired”.
It may be mentioned here that this facility was set up by State Bank of India (SBI) Balasore branch and was inaugurated May 25, 2014 by the Chief General Manager of SBI Bhubaneswar circle, KM Trivedy.
