* When Anand Salvi, a resident of Sangvi, took his wife to a private dental clinic for a root canal treatment, the doctor asked for Rs 2,000. Salvi was taken aback. His wife on Tuesday got the treatment done at the PCMC-run Yeshwantrao Chavan Memorial Hospital (YCMH), located in Sant Tukaram Nagar area, for just Rs 200.

* Asha Jadhav (70), a chawl resident, says she comes to YCMH every time her tooth aches. “I show the yellow card and they give me free treatment,” she Jadhav who belongs to below poverty level (BPL) category.

* For cleaning teeth, private hospitals charge around Rs 600. At YCMH, it costs just Rs 40.

For the middle-class residents like Salvi and the poor like Jadhav, YCMH hospital has provided the healing touch for a good 20 years. Though the hospital set up in 1989 has shown rapid growth in recent times, the latest was a heart surgery unit, what agitates citizens and activists in the industrial town is the “apathy” of the civic administration in improving facilities and manpower at the dental unit located on the first floor.

Every day, over 100 patients turn up at the dental OPD which operates from 9 am to 1 pm. Many of the crestfallen patients return home without getting treatment as there is a huge rush — first for getting case papers and then the waiting game outside the dental unit. Patients sit for hours together for their turn to come, but all in vain. Compounding their woes is the fact there is only one dental specialist, Yashwant Ingale, who also operates upon the patients. Besides Dr Ingale, there are two other doctors who are on a six-month contract. And when Dr Ingale is operating upon a patient, there is no specialist to attend to other patients.

... contd.