A worker at the SCB laundry plant. Picture by Badrika Nath Das

Cuttack, Nov. 20: Supply of bedsheets to patients at various departments of SCB Medical College and Hospital remains a far cry.

The regular supply by the outsourcing company, Mediaid Marketing Services, which manages the laundry plant at the hospital, has been disrupted for dearth of bedsheets. As a result, many patients have to use their own bedsheets in various wards.

Sources said the delay in payment of arrears to the tune of Rs 15 lakh to Mediaid by the hospital authorities is to be blamed for the irregularity.

At present, there is a requirement of around 5,000 bedsheets for better management while the agency has a stock of nearly 3,000 bedsheets. Moreover, 2,150 bedsheets are required on a daily basis in all wards.

“We are able to provide nearly 1,000 to 1,200 bedsheets to various wards as there is a shortage. Despite pending dues, we have already purchased 1,000 bedsheets and things are likely to improve within a couple of days as additional 1,000 bedsheets would be purchased shortly,” said technical director of Mediaid Bipin Sarangi.

“I have been undergoing treatment at the surgery department for the past one week and not a single bedsheet has been supplied so far,” said P.S. Mohanty, a patient from Jajpur.

Mohanty said that initially, they thought that like other hospitals or medical institutions, SCB, too, would provide bedsheet to the patient. “We had approached the nurses to supply bedsheet to our patients. They said there was limited supply for which all patients could not be provided with bedsheets on a daily basis,” said Aruna Raul, an attendant from Balasore.

Raul said the hospital employees had provided them one bedsheet on November 5 at the time of admission to the ward. Since then, the bedsheet has not been changed.

The SCB authorities, in a bid to provide better services to patients, had privatised and outsourced its laundry unit to Mediaid in 2010.

The agency is engaged in collection of dirty linen from all wards, operation theatres, cleaning and redistribution to the wards on daily basis. The agency is charging Rs 6 per linen and the hospital has to pay nearly Rs 3 lakh a month for the services.

The introduction of a scheme to provide seven different coloured bedsheets on each day of the week has also failed to take off at SCB.

At present, the hospital is using four colour bedsheets.

On the other hand, the SCB authorities could not be contacted over delay in payment of bills to the agency.