by Punjabnewswire4u
CHANDIGARH, NOV 30
In a bid to provide prompt
and the best health care facilities to the children studying in Government
Schools under the School Health Program on priority, the state government has
tied up with renowned private hospitals Christian Medial College, Dayanand Medical
College and Mohan Dai Oswal Charitable Hospital in Ludhiana besides Fortis,
Silver Oaks & Ivy Hospital in Mohali for treatment of the children, who are
suffering from life-threatening ailments like rheumatic and congenital heart disease
(hole in the heart), cancer and thallasemia.
Disclosing this here
today Director General School Education Mr. Kahan Singh Pannu said that this
decision had been taken to include these prestigious hospitals on the panel apart
from the already existing PGIMER Chandigarh because the heavy rush there
prevented these school children for getting timely treatment. The state government had also directed the
three state Medical Colleges at Patiala, Amritsar and Faridkot to
undertake preliminary check-up of the identified school children and refer
their cases for further treatment to private hospitals through Director of
Health Services. Earlier, the process of
preliminary check-ups along with was carried out at the PGI, which was the long
and tedious procedure, resulting in huge backlog and endless waiting
period.
As many as 1021 out of
1493 children have been treated for the hole in heart, 87 out of 131 for
cancer, 68 out of 84 for thallesemia, 1771 out of 2840 for polio/cerebral
palsy/congenital deformities, 216 out of 244 cleft lip/palette. Likewise, 587 children afflicted with low
vision and 2224 with hearing impaired would be provided treatment in the
medical camps being organized from December 5 and 11 respectively.
To expedite the process,
Mr. Pannu has now asked the District Education Officers to send all children
who were suspected to have some medical problem, to the medical colleges for
quick diagnosis and immediate further treatment at private hospitals after
referral. Efforts to get surgeries done
at private hospitals have yielded encouraging results. The department was now considering
to involve more such hospitals to provide timely medical intervention to school
children near their homes as to seek treatment for their wards from PGI was not
only cumbersome but also time consuming.
For rehabilitation of
children suffering from Polio and Cerebral Palsy, the department launched the
Surgical Correction Project and has tied up with Christian
Medical College
and Guru Teg Bahadur Sahib Charitable Hospital
in Ludhiana, Amandeep
Hospital in Amritsar
and Oberoi Hospital in Jalandhar. Surgeries of
children with congenital deformities as well as CP and residual Polio cases were
performed at these hospitals. After removal of plaster, long-term physiotherapy
treatment was provided to the children. The program have been a huge success
due to which 1771 children have discovered a new way of living by standing and
walking on their own feet again.
To help all children
with weak eyesight or vision problems, it has been directed to School Heads for
taking all children suspected of having refractive error to the nearest PHC/CHC
for further check-up and provision of spectacles on every Thursday, which has
been dedicated as a day for check-up of the school children.
The department has also
tied up with Sightsavers (an NGO) for proper diagnosis of children having extremely
Low Vision, who could not read even with spectacles. These children would be
provided the necessary assistive devices after their check-up and would be
provided Large Print Books as per their requirement. The Department has also
planned Audiometry testing for hearing impaired children. After the test, the
children would be provided state-of-the-art Behind The Ear (BTE) cordless
digital type hearing aids totally free of cost so that they could make use of
their residual hearing to live a normal life.
The Department had also
launched a campaign for eradication of the cleft lip/palette condition among
children. Under this campaign, the department tied-up with Smile Train (an
NGO). As many as 244 children with
clefts were identified out of which, 216 were operated successfully during the
6-week campaign period. Cleft lip
deformity among existing children has been eradicated in Punjab
with efforts of the education department and the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan
program.
After the children
recovered from the surgical correction and were provided adequate speech
therapy or physiotherapy, efforts were made to enroll them in a neighborhood
school if they were not previously enrolled. Through this school health and
surgical correction program launched by the Education department in
collaboration with NRHM and various private hospitals and NGOs, many children
have been given a new lease of life and many have discovered a new way of living,
thus helping them become part of the mainstream education system and grow up to
lead fruitful, meaningful lives.
