Certificate-seeking diffabled persons face difficulty at VMC hospital

VELLORE: Lack of seating and lack of space has resulted in the weekly interactions between differently abled patients and staff at the Vellore Government Medical College hospital a torrid affair.

Diffabled gather at the hospital’s OP (outpatient) ward every Tuesday for getting certificates for which their percentage of disability has to be assessed by doctors in the hospital.

Due to lack of space, they crowd around the staff in the narrow confines beneath the staircase in the OP wing.

Sources said, “though many cannot walk there are no wheelchairs to ferry them to the inspection spot as only normal patients are provided the facility. But nobody seems to mind.”

Though such interactions were held in the GDP hall in the Vellore Collector’s office between 2015 and 2021, the district administration suddenly shifted the venue to the hospital premises.

“This irked the diffabled as most are from the poorer sections of society and being unable to travel in buses, they can scarcely afford the Rs 200 auto from the town to Adukamparai on the Tiruvannamalai highway, where the hospital is located,” an official seeking anonymity revealed.

Hospital sources when queried after initial hesitation revealed that they lacked space to extend to the diffabled welfare department.

“The question is why is a welfare department functioning in the hospital when we already face space constraints? If they conduct the weekly meets elsewhere we will be more than willing to depute the necessary doctors,” they added.

Vellore DDAWO (District Differently Abled Welfare Officer) Saravanan when asked said, “the crowding is because each diffabled person is accompanied by two or more attendants. For 30 patients we thus have 90 persons which result in crowding. Also, when the camps were held in the Collector’s office it was only one camp a month whereas now there are two camps (at Vellore and Gudiyattam on Tuesdays and Thursdays respectively) per week which means eight camps a month.”