Ayurvedic dispensary needs care

Manav Mander

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, January 16

Ayurveda is an ancient form of medicine in India and works wonders if practised with consistency and uniformity. However, at present, not much attention is being paid to boost and advance this system of medicine.

One of the government ayurvedic dispensaries, located at Field Gunj here, is crying for care. Though things were a little better before the pandemic, now since the focus of the department has shifted towards Covid, this system of medicine is in total neglect and it was in 2019 only, that they received the supply of medicines.

As one enters the dispensary, one finds a huge campus dedicated to it compared to others in the district. It has a “panchkarma” room, a medicine room, doctor’s room and store room. In addition, the district ayurveda and unani officer also has his office here.

Despite having a huge campus, the sad part is that the state of all rooms is in a shambles, with broken furniture and dust gathered all around on the furniture and objects. During the rainy season, the campus turns into a pool, flooding the doctor’s room.

“Covid has taken a toll on our dispensary. We are two of us here. I am a doctor (‘vaid’) and the pharmacist (‘upvaid’). We have our Covid duties on alternate weeks and there are some days when both of us are on Covid duty. Then there is nobody to attend to the patients,” said Dr Mohandeep Kaur, the doctor in charge of the dispensary.

The condition of the doctor’s room is pitiable as the paint on the walls is all patchy. She said during the rainy season, her room leaks and electric current also passes through the wall.

Moving a little ahead is the “panchkarma” room which is a picture of total neglect with broken chairs and spiders making their home on the furniture lying there.

“Before Covid, we used to have “panchkarma” treatment here and it was fully operational. Now it was stopped due to Covid for following the norms of social distancing. Then one of our rooms was given for the office of the district ayurveda and unani officer. As a result, we shifted the machines to our ayurveda hospital at Kochar Market as there was no space left. We do have trained therapist for panchkarma, but still I used to do this in addition to holding my OPD. With machines having been shifted, we are facing a problem,” said Dr Mohandeep.