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MUMBAI: The public health department has directed civil surgeons to conduct a proper medical test of mentally deficient children's (MDC). "The periodical tests of these kids will help indentifying health issues, malnourishment cases and other problems faced by these vulnerable children," a senior health department official said.

The directives were given by T C Benjamin (additional chief secretary health).

Earlier the Bombay High Court had observed that of the total shelter home only 59 per cent of these are registered under the Juvenile Justice Act and a mere 22 per cent homes had even updated medical reports of the children.

The health department organized a meeting of civil surgeons and in the meeting the doctors were sensitised about the rules pertaining to the child sexual and physical abuse cases. "According to the provision of the new act if any individual comes to know about the sexual or physical abuse case, then it will be mandatory for him/her to report about the incident to the police," Dr Asha Bajpai, Dean, school of law, said.

Meanwhile the department has asked doctors to discontinue old traditional way of testing r**e victims and adopt latest forensic science methodology for such tests, if needed.

CHANDIGARH: Hundreds of patients had to suffer at Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32 on Saturday, following the strike of para-medical and clerical staff of hospital from 8am to 9.30am protesting delay in salaries.

According to rules, para-medical and clerical staff working on contract gets their salary by 10th every month, but reportedly this month they have not received it yet. Hospital gives the salary amount to the contractor and the contractor pays it to the staff of around 150 people, sources revealed. Work was resumed after the hospital administration handed over the salary amount to the contractor which was later given to the staff. Meanwhile, the strike resulted in hundreds of people suffering as many reach early in the morning to get their cards made. Timings for the registration of the cards are from morning 8am to 11am but people generally start reaching at 7am.

Resident of Kharar Ajit Singh said, "I reached early in the morning to avoid long queues, but was forced to wait till 10 because of the strike. If there is a problem between the management and staff, it's unfair to make the people suffer for it." GMCH director principal Dr Raj Bahadur said, "The salaries did get delayed, but after the strike we immediately gave it to the contractor who paid the staff."

MUMBAI: One in five su***des occurs due to mental illnesses, but the basic health infrastructure such as beds for patients have not seen a proportional rise in the city, say experts.

While only a fraction of the mentally ill needs hospitalization at any given time, the patient pool here is huge: one in 5 women and one in 10 men are depressed at some point in their lives. Serious mental illnesses like schizophrenia and bipolar disorder each affect 1% of the population. Said a doctor, "There are rehabilitation clinics/homes that the wealthy can afford, but what about the majority of patients?"

Moreover, there is a bias against maintaining a full-fledged psychiatry ward in most private hospitals. Dr Yusuf Matcheswalla, who heads the department in Masina Hospital and consults in the government-run J J and G T hospitals, says the bias creeps in from the time of the hospitals' inception. "Most hospitals boast of an out-patient department for psychiatry, but do not encourage in-patients," he adds. One reason could be the stringent criteria laid down for infrastructure meant for the mentally ill. "There also is some degree of stigma attached to mental illness as far as the private hospitals are concerned," he adds.

Psychiatrist Dr Harish Shetty says the issue of mental health has been neglected by the government. "The number of beds in all other specialties in general hospitals has gone up, except for psychiatry. The civic health posts are involved in house-to-house surveys for malaria and polio, but no work on su***de prevention has been initiated," he points out.

However, not all agree. Dr Shubhangi Parkar, head of the psychiatry department at civic-run KEM Hospital, said: "There has not been an increase in the number of beds in the past 10 years, but the 90 beds that we have are enough."

Dr Sanjay Kumawat, former medical superintendent at Thane Mental Hospital, said Maharashtra's four mental hospitals have 5,000-plus beds. "The number of beds for mentally ill patients isn't bad in Mumbai," he added.

However, a senior doctor said, "It's the poor who don't have adequate facilities for counselling or hospitalization."

PUNE: The Pune Municipal Corporation's standing committee on Tuesday deferred a decision on the controversial agreement with Aundh Institute of Medical Sciences to run its multi-specialty hospital on a public-private-partnership basis.

The general body of the PMC had signed an agreement with AIMS in this regard in 2003. However, several social organisations and political parties have been opposing the arrangement, claiming that it was not beneficial for the underprivileged. Opposing the proposal, Republican Party of India corporator Siddharth Dhende had tabled a suggestion a couple of weeks back seeking cancellation of the agreement.

"No decision was taken on the issue," Baburao Chandere, standing committee chairman, said on Tuesday. The committee has decided to send the proposal to the civic administration for its opinion. A final decision on whether to scrap the agreement will be taken after the civic administration gives its opinion. The administration has been given 15 days' time to reply, he added.

Activists of RPI and Jan Arogya Manch on Tuesday staged demonstrations on the premises of corporation, demanding cancellation of the agreement. The model will deprive the poor of low-cost treatment, they said.

"It is the responsibility of the PMC to provide basic health services to citizens, but under the garb of PPP, it wants to privatize its services. This initiative means nothing, but handing over PMC's assets into private hands," said the press releases issued by them.

CHENNAI: A mentally ill man is reportedly missing from the Institute of Mental Health in Kilpauk for more than a week.

John Peter, 26, from Ayanavaram had been admitted to the hospital on July 25. His mother came to see him last week and found him missing form his ward. She lodged a complaint with the Secretariat Colony police after first searching for him at the houses of relatives.

Peter's family said he had been undergoing regular treatment at IMH since 1998 and was admitted as an in-patient in July. "We used to visit the hospital every month and admitted him two months ago. There has been no proper response from the police after we lodged a complaint," one of Peter's family members said. He alleged that there was no proper security on the premises. IMH officials were not available for comment.

On April 2, according to police records, 26-year-old Sundarajan D of Porur scaled a wall at the IMH and tried to escape when he was knocked down by a lorry on Konnur High Road, a kilometre from the hospital. He had been admitted to the hospital on December 10, 2011, police said.

NAWANSHAHR: In yet another incident that can put functioning of health department to shame, a woman had to deliver her baby on the roadside, outside the closed gate of Primary Health Centre of Sandhwan Pharala village in the district on Thursday morning.

This centre is supposed to provide 24x7 services to the rural people, but even at 7am on Thursday its doors were closed as none of the staff members were there. After Sunita of Munna village delivered a baby with the help of her husband and a passerby woman, a class IV employee of the centre came and opened the door. Her placenta was taken out in the dispensary by the staff. As both mother and baby were healthy, they were discharged in the evening.

On Friday, Nawanshahr civil surgeon Dr Ashwin Kumar entrusted an inquiry to Sujjon SMP Dr Rashpal Singh who visited the PHC in the day and recorded the statements of the staff.

According to eyewitnesses, the woman had labour pains and her husband rushed her to the centre, but the gate was closed. "Sunita was in labour and then a woman, who was passing by, came to her help," said an eyewitness. The staff came at around 8am and took over.

Kumar said it was a 24x7 centre, but due to shortage of staff and location there were problems in keeping it open for 24 hours. During the inquiry, staff members held that the centre was located at a distance from the village and women staff were not safe at night.

The staff held that there were two doctors posted there, but one was sent on deputation for attending emergency duty at Civil Hospital, Banga, which has quite a few doctors. One doctor would remain on call after the regular duty from 8am to 2pm. The centre has only two staff nurses.

Meanwhile, Human Empowerment League Punjab (HELP) has sent a complaint to the Punjab State Human Rights Commission. "It is not only failure in providing the minimal healthcare to the rural people, but also amounted to injuring the dignity of a woman, who had to deliver the baby in public with the help of a passerby that too just outside the gate of government-run health centre," HELP representation said.