CJ impact: Orissa hospital gets new ICU

Bhubaneswar: Citizen journalist Lipsita Mohanty highlighted the lack of emergency medical services in Bhubhaneshwar's only government hospital.

The authorities took notice of her report and within a month, made the ICU functional at Capital Hospital.

I am Lipsita Mohanty and I am a school teacher in Bhubaneswar. Last month I became a citizen journalist to highlight the pathetic emergency health services in Bhubaneswar's only government hospital- The Capital hospital. I found that the hospital lacked basic emergency care facilities.

Last month, Citizen Journalist had reported the lack of emergency services in the Capital Hospital.

Ironically, this hospital has a fully equipped intensive care unit (ICU), but it was lying unused for last five years.

Chief Medical Officer, Capital Hospital, Dr Gangadhar Rath says, “But the problem is the ventilator is not working for last five years. We have asked the engineer from Chennai to come and repair it and once that is done we will open the ICU immediately."

As a result, critical patients are referred to the SCB medical hospital in Cuttack. It takes an hour to get to the hospital which is almost 25 kilometres away. Crucial time is lost and many patients don’t survive.

The authorities took notice of this story when it played on CNN-IBN. And there has been an impact.

The issue came to the notice of Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik whose intervention in the matter has led to the inauguration of the ICU in the Capital hospital.

It is the power of Citizen Journalism that has helped me bring about this change. So if you see something that bothers you become a CJ. Just log on to ibnlive.com/cj to share your story.

This is Lipsita Mohanty Citizen Journalist for CNN-IBN.

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