Non-existent dietician department in Jammu hospitals costing govt, patients heavily

JAMMU: The government is suffering losses amounting to crores of rupees due to non-functional dietician department at Government Medical College and Hospital (GMC&H), the premier hospital of Jammu region, and other hospitals, as the hospital authorities are forced to give tenders to private contractors for supplying diet to patients admitted in the hospital.

These private entities are charging exorbitant money for the food, further contrasted by the price charged in Valley hospitals, where a proper dietician department exists.

“If the government makes dietician department of GMC and other hospitals functional, we would be able to procure food material on our own, prepare diet for the admitted patients and provide them which would save crores of rupees,” well placed sources in the health department informed The New Now.

The doctors of the dietician department also prescribe the required diet to a patient as per his ailment and for speedy recovery.

However, due to non-functional dietician department, the hospital authorities have to allot contract to a private contractor through e-tendering costing government crores of rupees per month.

“The dietician department at GMC is non-functional and therefore, we have to allot tenders to private contractors for supplying diet to admitted patients,” Superintendent, Government Medical College and Hospital, Dr Dara Singh told The News Now.

The dietician department at Jammu’s Government Medical College and Hospital is non-functional due to acute shortage of staff. “We have several times written to the concerned authorities for providing required staff to make the dietician department functional but no step has been taken to make it functional,” sources informed.

Sources said that not only, GMC, the dietician department is also non-functional in other hospitals of Jammu like Super Specialty Hospital (SSH), SMGS Hospital, Chest Disease Hospital and Psychiatric Hospital. The diet in these hospitals is also supplied to patients by contractors costing crores of rupees to government, sources said.

However, on the contrary, the dietician department is functional in Kashmir’s SKIMS Hospital, which is providing far better diet and also non-veg diet to patients, sources said.

Having its own department functional, the SKIMS is providing better diet to patients and that too at much less rates. It procures food material from the market, prepares diet on its own and supplies to the patients thus saving crores of rupees of the government, sources said.

The difference could be gauged from the fact that SKIMS provides non-veg diet to patients costing Rs 91, while GMC provides veg diet i.e Dal Sabzi costing Rs 134.

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