The Hindu : Health infrastructure on the verge of collapse

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Sunday, Jun 23, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Tamil Nadu-Chennai

Health infrastructure on the verge of collapse

By Saptarshi Bhattacharya

CHENNAI June 22. The Chennai Corporation's diagnostic laboratory, set up a year ago adjacent the Valluvar Kottam junction, is facing a threat due to bad civic conditions outside.

The laboratory with facilities including ECG, ultrasound and X-ray has come as a boon to the poor, but the health infrastructure is on the verge of a collapse as the approach road to the facility was full of giant potholes, created by continuous movement of water tankers to and from the adjacent filling station.

During the days of water scarcity, the approach to the laboratory was literally closed by the tankers. Though the movement of these vehicles has been restricted now, there is no effort by the civic body to improve the condition.

About eight months ago, after assuming office, the Deputy Mayor, `Karate' R.Thyagarajan, inspected the spot and assured of immediate action, but proposals to improve the state of the road remained only on paper. The staff at the laboratory has numerous complaints.

To add to the woes, anti-social elements, which have free access to the place thanks to the absence of a continuous boundary wall, have stolen all slide windows and damaged the glass door. ``There is no safety for the equipment. They had even taken away our water supply pipelines about a year ago. A police complaint was lodged but there has been no remedial action. Now, we do not have water coming through the supply lines. The two maid servants take turns in bringing water from the Metrowater filling station next door'', the staff say.

However, despite the odds, the patient attendance to the laboratory has gone up to about 30 per day. But, handling more patients with the existing facilities would be tough, they added.

The laboratory building, constructed at a cost of Rs. 42.5 lakhs, was funded from the MLA constituency fund of M.K.Stalin.

Facilities for bio-chemical, virological, serological, micro-biological and pathological tests are available in addition to X-ray, ECG and ultra-sound.

For blood tests, an Elisa reader and a semi-auto analyser were installed at a total cost of about Rs. four lakhs and a QBC machine at a cost of Rs. three lakhs.

The ECG machine and the colour doppler together cost the civic body Rs. 20 lakhs.

The total cost of the project was about Rs. three crores.

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