Pune: The pendency of disability certificates at Sassoon General Hospital has reduced from 11,500 to 1,500 in the past six months, officials said. The certificates are required for those with special needs, appearing for govt jobs, competitive exams or for travel purposes.Dr Yallapa Jadhav, medical superintendent at Sassoon General Hospital, said, “Six months ago, we had 11,500 disability certificates pending for disbursal at the hospital. We introduced some drastic steps to bring down the numbers.”Hospital authorities increased the frequency of the disability certificate OPDs from two days a week to five days a week, he added. “We also made specialists available for diagnosis of the disability for every OPD. We have ensured the availability of a resident medical officer and data entry officer as well to clear the pendencies.”The hospital also reached out to those who had registered long ago but did not appear for their appointment. Dr Jadhav said, “We cancelled all such appointments to clear the pendency and reached out to them and asked them to re-register. This way, we could bring down our pendencies drastically. We get registrations not just from Pune but also from neighbouring districts.”Though 12 hospitals in the district are eligible for the distribution of disability certificates, about 60% to 70% of the applications are still disbursed by Sassoon, he added.Earlier, the medical education department and the health department had instructed other govt hospitals and medical colleges in the district, such as Aundh District Hospital and Baramati Medical College, to share the load. However, that did not pan out as expected, officials said.
