BERHAMPUR: Vacant doctor and auxiliary health staff posts have taken a toll on healthcare in Ganjam district. While patients do not get timely medical help in the absence of doctors, implementation of health schemes in the district has gone for a toss.
Although the State Government has been appointing doctors in many rural districts of the State, this Southern Odisha district has not seen any appointments for the last several years. As a result, poor patients from rural areas of the district are forced to depend on quacks and traditional healers. Many even take loans to avail treatment in expensive private clinics.
According to official reports, as many as 210 doctor posts are lying vacant in Ganjam district against the sanctioned 399.
Chief District Medical Officer, Bijay Panigrahi said the number of sanctioned posts of healthcare staff is 2,919 including 399 doctors. “We have to manage with 1,709 health staff including 189 doctors. Apart from healthcare, this has been affecting implementation of health schemes in the district”, he said.
The Janani Surakhya Yojana is a case in point. There are no 102 ambulances in any of the primary health centres (PHCs) in the district and the facility is only available at the District Headquarters Hospital (DHH) in Berhampur, sub-divisional hospitals at Chhatrapur and Bhanjanagar and 26 of 28 community health centres (CHCs).
Even though there are 90 new PHCs in the district, only eight of them have the facility to carry out normal and C-section deliveries. None of the upgraded PHCs have provision for delivery and so is the condition of health sub-centres. Only two of 460 sub-centres admit pregnant women for delivery as on today.