Meerut: In the absence of doctors, the Meerut district hospital’s geriatric ward initiative has failed to take off. With 10 beds, now the locked ward was aimed at providing regular dedicated OPD services to the elderly. It was especially constructed in PL Sharma district hospital here.
The initiative had come up in the backdrop of National Programme for Health Care of the Elderly (NPHCE), which aims to provide accessible, affordable, and high-quality long-term, comprehensive and dedicated care services to an ageing population.
“We are unable to run the geriatric ward due to the lack of doctors here. We have written to the state government authorities and they are in the process of recruiting doctors. Once we have doctors, we will be able to run the ward,” said Dr Raj Kumar Chaudhary, Meerut chief medical officer.
According to the instructions given by health authorities, two consultants (medicine), six nurses, one physiotherapist, two hospital attendants and two sanitary attendants were to be appointed for the ward that was meant to focus on treatment and care of elderly in the district. An amount of Rs 57.80 lakh was also approved for the project.
In the first phase, NPHCE is proposed to be implemented in 21 states with eight regional medical institutions and 80 districts of the country (four to five districts each state/UTs).
