Testing facilities fail to kick-off at Aam Aadmi Clinics in Punjab’s rural areas

Even five days after the inauguration of 400 more Aam Aadmi Clinics (AACs) in Punjab, the testing facilities in the rural areas failed to kick off as the health department is yet to finalise the modality for carrying out clinical tests at AACs.

The department has directed the local health department to manage with the nearby healthcare facilities for carrying out tests of patients visiting the AACs.

In the urban areas, the health department is managing to collect samples of patients from clinics to get them tested from nearby government districts, sub-divisional hospitals and community health centres. However, in the rural areas, health department is failing to conduct tests as there is no hospital or health institute located near the AACs.

While inaugurating the clinics on January 26, chief minister Bhagwant Mann had claimed that nearly 100 tests will be offered free of cost at clinics.

Earlier, the state government had tied-up with Krsnaa diagnostic for conducting tests at 100 AACs, which were dedicated to public on Independence Day last year. But now the health department has not tied-up with any firm or finalised modalities for carrying out clinical tests of patients of AACs.”

An official of the health department, pleading anonymity said, “The department has directed us to manage with the nearby hospitals for the first 15 days and new directions will be issued later. However, it is almost impossible in the rural areas as there is no government health institution near AACs in villages.”

An employee deployed at the clinic in the rural area in Sangrur said, “Not even a single test was conducted at clinics. We are noting down contact numbers of patients and will call them whenever testing facility is available here.”

A civil surgeon of a Malwa district pleading anonymity said, “Testing facilities are not available at AACs in my district as the department is yet to finalise modality for conducting test.”

Sangrur civil surgeon Dr Parminder Kaur said, “As of now, we are conducting patients’ tests at nearby hospitals, but we are facing problems in the rural areas”

Dilbag Singh, civil surgeon Tarn Taran said, “As of now, we are only conducting blood sugar and other basic rapid tests at Aam Adami Clinics. Besides, other testing facilities are not available at clinics so far. However, we will act as per the government directions.”

“We had a meeting with the higher officials of the department and were told to conduct tests at nearby government hospitals for the first 15 days. In Ludhiana most newly opened clinics are in urban areas and only few are located in rural areas. Even those, which are in rural areas, are near to CHCs or other health institutes. Therefore, there we are managing it very well in the district,” said Dr Ramandeep Kaur, deputy medical commissioner, Ludhiana.

Director health Dr Ranjeet Singh said, “We are using our machinery which is already available in government health institutions for carrying out tests of patients. We have not tied up with Krsnaa diagnostic this time due to some reasons which I cannot disclose.”