BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha Pradesh Congress Committee (OPCC) on Saturday came down heavily on the State Government over inadequate health infrastructure and promised to improve the situation if Congress is voted to power.
Alleging that there are only 512 ambulances to cover the entire State which comes to around one vehicle per one lakh people, OPCC president Niranjan Patnaik said there are only 500 ambulances for maternity care. The State is also way behind the national average of doctors vis-a-vis population, Niranjan said and added that while there is one doctor for every 1,681 people as per national average, the ratio is 1:2749 in Odisha. “If availability of Government doctors is taken into account, the ratio comes to one doctor for every 13,000 people,” he said.
Niranjan said though the Government has admitted that there are large scale vacancies in post of doctors in the State, no steps have been taken to correct the situation. Odisha needs 6,536 Government doctors to provide adequate health service, he said and added that 3,119 posts of doctors are vacant in Government hospitals.
Stating that Government hospitals in Odisha have 18,000 beds for 4.6 crore people, the OPCC president asked what has the Government done for people who are dependent on primary health centres (PHCs) and community health centres (CHCs). Niranjan said Odisha has 1,226 PHCs and 313 CHCs the majority of which do not have adequate infrastructure and required number of doctors and other staff.