AMALAPURAM: Wait for a proper building to house the Primary Healthcare Centre at Pallamkurru village in Katrenikona mandal in Dr BR Ambedkar Konaseema district continues even though it has been seven years since the project was approved and five years since construction began. So far, only foundation work for the new building has been completed.
As a result, doctors have been forced to work out of a two-room dilapidated building with just one table and chair. The PHC neither has a laboratory nor space to store medicines. The patients, too, have to get treated standing. While one doctor stays in the PHC to treat in-patients, the other goes on field trips.
The PHC serves the need of three village panchayats, Kandikuppa, Balusuthippa and Pallamkurru, which have a total population of about 25,000. The health centre has two doctors, a multi-purpose health education officer (MPHEO), multi-purpose health supervisor (female), two staff nurses, lab technician, pharmacist and a sanitary attendant. Asha workers and local secretariat health staff, too, work from the PHC. The staff have found a spot for themselves under an overhead tank near the building to write records. Posts for a public health nurse and a senior assistant at the PHC are still vacant.
A local trader of Pallamkuru, M Srinu, said the three villages have not had a proper healthcare facility since a long time. “If there is an emergency like appendicitis, snake bite or any accident, the patient must be taken to Katrenikona PHC or to Mummidivaram Community Health Centre, which are 15 and 25 kilometres away from the panchayats, respectively,” he rued.
Before being upgraded as a PHC, the building served as a dispensary for the three panchayats. Andhra Pradesh Medical Services and Infrastructure Development Corporation (APMSIDC) had invited tenders for the construction of the PHC building with `80 lakh in October 2016. One of the contractors won the contract and began construction. However, only the pillars were built in an extent of 0.50 acre till 2018. After a new government assumed charge in 2019, the works stopped.
Speaking to TNIE, senior medical officer at the PHC, Dr Swathi said the health centre treats 50 to 70 inpatients every day on an average. Before the Family Doctor programme was implemented, the daily average stood at 80, she added.
Konaseema DMHO Dr Durgarao Dora told TNIE that they have visited the PHC and identified the lapses. He added that APMSIDC officials have been informed about the situation and requested to resume construction of the new building. When contacted, APMSIDC district executive engineer Vijay Bhaskar Reddy was not available to speak on the issue.