While Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann aspires to provide better healthcare services to the citizens of Punjab, the government hospitals in the state are acting bizarre by asking the patients to click the pictures of X-rays on smartphones instead of accessing a hard copy report.
According to the reports, the government employees at the hospital in Patiala city of Punjab published an announcement asking its patients to get smartphones during X-ray scanning. “Only those who have smartphones should come for X-ray”, the announcement at the district-run hospital named Mata Kaushalya Hospital read.
The hospital staff members claimed that they usually issue the announcement when the hospital is out of X-ray films. As a result of this bizarre attitude, the majority of poor patients are left unattended since they do not own cell phones. Notably, X-ray is a frequent non-abrasive imaging technique used by doctors to inspect the interior of your body.
One of the patients named Fuljaria Devi talked to Tribune India to reveal that she was allegedly denied treatment by the hospital for not owning a smartphone but a keypad phone. The 53-year-old lady said that she works as a construction labourer and can’t afford a smartphone. “My son works near the Focal Point. Only he has a smartphone. Now, I will have to get my son to get my X-ray done”, she added.
Another patient Manjit Kaur, a daily-wager said, “I do not have a smartphone. I have pleaded with many people for help but no one is ready”. Meanwhile, a senior doctor who is supposed to check X-rays on the smartphone stated that this was an unfortunate situation demanding patients to go through a mess. “X-ray is not visible on smartphones and we often face difficulties in diagnosing the patients”, he added.
Ironically, the Health Minister had only recently visited the hospital. However, Dr Sandeep Kaur, Medical Superintendent of Government Mata Kaushalya Hospital praised this act of the hospital and said that it does nothing but save money. “If a patient does not have a smartphone, our X-ray department personnel will email the images immediately to the doctor”, he added.
