HYDERABAD: For the past four years, the urban primary health centre (UPHC) at Secunderabad’s Chilkalguda has been functioning from a single room. Pregnant women and new mothers with children in their arms often wait in long queues to get into a small room where the doctor waits for them.
Even the pharmacy and storeroom are exist in the same room, with asbestos sheets acting as the roof on top. However, this was meant to be just a temporary arrangement. The Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) had demolished the regular structure housing the UPHC for the construction of a market yard building at Sitaphalmandi. The UPHC was supposed to be constructed elsewhere.
Almost all patients visiting the centre are from under-privileged sections of the society, mostly from Chilkalguda and Sitaphalmandi areas. Going by a rough estimate, around 20-30 patients visit the centre for their regular check-ups on a daily basis. Many of them are pregnant women.
Residents from the locality fume that GHMC has turned a blind eye towards their public health needs.
Lack of infrastructure and facilities are often cited as a hurdle in better functioning of the UPHC here. It doesn’t even have a waiting hall for patients, often leaving them standing in the sun while they await their turn. A pregnant woman from the Chilkalguda locality, G Kalpana, said that many like her are forced to stand in a queue. “It is a sad situation at the UPHC that it doesn’t have a separate room where doctors can examine women, especially those who are pregnant. In spite of several representations to the local MLA and GHMC officials, requesting them for better facilities, there has been no change,” rued Kalpana.
P Shanker, a local resident from Sitaphalmandi, said that a basti dawakhana used to function from a permanent structure with three rooms in Sitaphalmandi. “The land was taken away for construction of a market yard. But for four years, neither have we seen a market yard, not a UPHC, as was promised to us,” said Shanker.
When contacted, J Venkat, who is the District Medical Health Officer(DMHO), admitted knowledge of the difficulties faced by patients. “We are looking to rent a building and shift the UPHC into it. Also, a proposal has also been sent to the Family Welfare Commissioner for funds to construct the permanent building”, added the DMHO.