AMALAPURAM: Even as the State government has been working towards providing medical services at people’s doorsteps, paucity of funds has been a hurdle in implementing the initiative. Patients could not avail treatment at the Urban Primary Health Centre (UPHC) in Mummidivaram on Wednesday as it was locked since Tuesday evening. It has been reported that the owners of the building, housing the healthcare facility, locked the premises as eight months’ rent was not paid.
While a permanent building for the UPHC is under construction, the centre has been temporarily operating out of a rented house for the past 15 months. A sum of Rs 15,000 is paid as rent per month. The owners—Rajamani and wife Sannaboyina Chandramma—claimed that they had been urging the authorities concerned to pay rent for the past few months. “With no other option left, we had to lock the premises,” they said.
UPHC medical officer Dr V Aparanji said, “As many as 40-50 patients avail treatment at the facility that also has beds to accommodate two to three inpatients for intravenous fluid therapy. The UPHC has a strength of seven paramedics. “We waited for the entire day for the owners to unlock the house. As medicines and other equipment were inside the UPHC, we could not treat the patients,” she expressed.
DMHO intervenes, owner demands complete payment
Although the district medical and health officer (DMHO) and municipal commissioner were informed of the situation, their intervention did not yield any results. Mummidivaram Nagar Panchayat Municipal Commissioner G Lova Raju said the UPHC has been functioning from a private rented house for the past 15 months. “Payment of rent has been delayed due to the restructuring of districts. The DMHO informed me that pending arrears would be paid in 10 days.”
DMHO Dr Bharatha Lakshmi explained that the rent could not be paid as the budget had not been released. “I personally met the owners and requested them to unlock the facility. On the instructions of the district administration, we assured the couple of clearing five months’ rent within a week, but they demanded us to clear eight months’ arrears.”
Lova Raju said a new building for the UPHC, being constructed at a cost of Rs 80 lakh, would be ready by the end of December this year. He added that the construction of the health centre, scheduled to be completed by September, was delayed due to floods and heavy rains.