Chandigarh: 5 yrs on, drug de-addiction centre at GMSH-16 still not operational
Amid the efforts by the UT administration to curb substance abuse, the drug de-addiction and treatment centre in Government Multi Specialty Hospital, Sector 16, has been non-operational since 2020. The health department has cited the unavailability of a psychiatrist as the reason. The drug de-addiction and treatment centre at GMCH-16, Chandigarh, was launched in 2009. (Ravi Kumar/HT)
The centre, opened in 2009, was converted into a Covid-19 facility in 2020. Since then, the department has not been able to recruit a psychiatrist to run the 12-bed indoor residential treatment centre.
Notably, the Punjab governor and UT administrator had recently launched 'Drug Free Chandigarh' campaign, and state-level events are being organised to spread the message.
Director of health services Dr Suman Singh said, 'There is no psychiatrist to run the centre. We have been advertising a post of psychiatrist time and again, but have not received a single applicant. There are only two psychiatrists in the hospital who have to run the general OPD as well. We need to have a full-time psychiatrist for the centre.' Singh did not mention the exact number of times the post has been advertised.
The centre is crucial for local patients to get therapy and treatment at minimal cost with less waiting time. With this facility closed, the patients are left with only two affordable medical facilities--GMCH-32 and PGIMER. The facilities available in private healthcare are costlier. PGIMER, being a tertiary care hospital, largely deals with referral cases from across the northern region, leaving a long waiting time for local patients. After PGIMER, the only government drug de-addiction facility available in the city is in GMCH-32, and it has eight beds in the psychiatry department earmarked for substance abuse patients.
The number of such patients is increasing year by year. In GMCH, the number of OPD patients has gone from 3,000 in 2023 to 3,156 in 2024, officials said. In PGIMER, around 27,000 patients visited the OPD in 2024.
A former GMSH-16 official, wishing anonymity, said there is a lack of will to operate the centre. 'There used to be two medical officers along with sanctioned staff of one psychiatrist, four nurses and four ward attendants at the centre. Multiple solutions can be opted to start the centre if the department is unable to recruit a single psychiatrist,' the official added.
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