Source: TOI
AMRITSAR: Thalassaemia patients in Amritsar have to depend on
non-government organizations (NGOs) to meet their expenses on medication
as government hospitals have expressed their inability to do so due to
lack of funds. Not only are medicines not provided to patients but the
thalassaemia ward situated in the children's ward of Guru Nanak Dev
Hospital is also maintained by an NGO, Amritsar Thalassaemia Welfare
Society.
Thalassaemia is a genetic blood disorder in which the
patient's bone marrow cannot form sufficient red cells and their
survival is also reduced. Thalassemic patients have to be given blood
transfusion every 15 days.
"We organize blood donation camps every now and then and give blood
to the government blood bank which ensures that thalassaemic patients
are at least never short of blood for transfusion," said president of
the society, Satnam Singh while talking to TOI on Saturday. Satnam's son
Hargun Singh is also a thalassaemic.
A visit to the thalaessemia
ward of Guru Nanak Dev Hospital reveals the sorry state of affairs and
the predicament of poor parents of kids suffering from the disease who
not only have to depend on NGOs or the thalassaemia welfare society for
medicines but also have to arrange for about Rs 1,000 every 15 days
which is needed for purchase of certain material and equipment required
for blood transfusion.
Sukhleen Kaur, whose son Sukhpreet Singh
has been taking blood transfusion for the past nearly seven years said,
"There were no facilities available to them in the government hospital,"
while adding that she couldn't afford medical treatment expenses in
private hospitals. "Had the thalassaemia welfare society not been there
for our help, things would have been worse," she said.
Anjali
whose ten-year-old son Danish is also taking treatment at the
thalassaemia ward in the government hospital said it was due to the
efforts of the society that electric fittings were made in the room,
while adding that even the flooring of the ward was done by the society.
She rued that patients were not provided medicines by the government
hospital.
Medical superintendent of Guru Nanak Dev Hospital Dr R P
S Boparai admitted to funds scarcity with them due to which they were
not able to provide medicines to thalaessemics. "Fund crunch is
everywhere but we have NGOs like Society Sewa Bharti and Bhai Kanhayya
Mission Society who help patients." He however said that they ensured
that every thallasaemic patient got the required blood for transfusion.
Satnam Singh said that the society had also begun an awareness campaign
especially among girls and boys of marriageable age. Everyone getting
married must undergo a medical test before to find whether he was a
thalassaemic minor or carrier to avoid spread of disease.
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