Jalandhar: Rehab centre turns into COVID care facility; drug addicts take a back seat

The whole world is suffering from the deadly pandemic and to tackle it, the authorities in Jalandhar have converted a drug de-addiction centre into a COVID care centre, due to which rehabilitation of drug addicts has taken a back seat. The de-addiction centre with 25 rooms had witnessed 603 indoor admissions between March and August in 2019; however, 164 patients have been admitted this year. In March 1,027 addicts visited the OPD, but the number reduced to 400 in August. Dr Avneet Kaur, Director, Health Services said, ‘Will look into matter. We will provide additional beds to the centre if they face any problem. I will take up the issue with the Civil Surgeon and see if alternative arrangements can be made.’ Nothing concrete has happened till now despite representations from the de-addiction centre to the Director Health Services, Mental Health Cell in-charge, Head of Department Psychiatry (Medical College, Amritsar), Civil Surgeon and Jalandhar Deputy Commissioner. From March 24, de-addiction and psychiatry services are being offered to addicts from the Jalandhar Civil Hospital. From the 50 bed de-addiction centre, the bed capacity has been reduced to 12 and both men and women share bathrooms. Jalandhar has the busiest de-addiction services in the state (7,734 OPD, IPD and rehab registrations at the de-addiction centre and 12,649 registrations at psychiatry OPD in 2019). Dr Aman Sood, In-charge, Jalandhar De-addiction Centre, said, “The present facilities are compromised. Higher authorities have been briefed.” Also Read | Think 10 times before posting anything on social media says Punjab CM to youngsters On the contrary, Jalandhar Civil Surgeon Dr Gurinder Kaur Chawla said, “I haven’t received any information, but if there are any problems, we will definitely look into them.” -PTC News