Sultanpur Lodhi: Almost 30k devotees attended to by health dept in 11 days

A total of 1,176 persons faced health problems on November 2 and 3, but with the increasing footfall the number went up and in the last four days — from November 9 to 12 — 16,755 patients were examined including 6,111 on the last day (November 12).

Various medical camps were set up in the three tent cities during the celebrations in the town where nearly 6 million pilgrims visited, including around 5 million in the two weeks ahead of the Sikhism founder’s birth anniversary on November 12.

The most common issues reported by devotees were body ache, cardio vascular, skin diseases, hypertension, diabetes, diarrhoea and food poisoning.

A total 11,783 devotees were examined in the OPD and IPD of three tent cities.

“The teams were working round the clock at the medical camps because of the heavy footfall,” said Deputy Commissioner D P S Kharnabda, adding that 50 ambulances, including two with cardiac life support and 20 bike ambulances, were operating.

“It was a mega event where the footfall went beyond everyone’s imagination, but with the deployment of over 800 medical staff members including 150 doctors, 470 paramedics and 200 volunteers, we could manage to attend to each and every person who came with any health complaint to our camps,” added DC.

For primary health care, four private hospitals in Sultanpur Lodhi, and two nearby CHCs and four PHCs were put to use. For secondary health care, each tent city had a hospital set-up, in addition to 16 private hospitals in Kapurthala and Jalandhar districts, apart from Sub-divisional Hospital and Civil Hospital, Kapurthala.

For tertiary care, there are 22 private hospitals in Jalandhar apart from PIMS, Jalandhar and Military Hospital, Jalandhar Cantt, Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Amritsar and Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Faridkot.