WARANGAL: Despite government’s claim of improving healthcare facilities in state-run hospitals in rural areas, the quality of medical facilities are still as good as non-existent in almost all the government hospitals in the district.
Due to the lack of good infrastructure, qualified doctors and sufficient medicines, most of the time the rural populace has to rush to government hospitals situated in Hyderabad or other corporate hospitals.
“These district area hospitals and primary health centres can handle cases of fever, small injuries and pregnancies. They do not have facilities or qualified doctors to handle serious cases including dengue, viral fever and malaria,” says R Ratnaiah from Mahabubabad, who had come to get his 12-year-old daughter treated at Mahatma Gandhi Memorial (MGM) Hospital in Warangal.
A government hospital doctor, on condition of anonymity, said that district area hospitals are not equipped to handle serious cases and could provide just preliminary treatments. Most of the complicated cases are referred to MGM hospital or to Gandhi or Osmania General hospitals in Hyderabad.
A visit to any government hospital in the district brings one face to face with clogged toilets, poorly stored medicines, and unclean wards.
Though the government supplies free medicines, there seems to be no interest among the hospital staff to store it in a proper manner.
Most of the rural people prefer going to a private clinic rather than a government hospital. “I do not trust government hospitals. They do not have qualified doctors and infrastructure,” says Sivaiah of Narsampet mandal.