ROURKELA: Owing to the dearth of staff, lack of infrastructure and primary treatment facilities, Ayurveda, despite being a preferred medicine system, is struggling for survival in the tribal-dominated Sundargarh district.
Sources said, a majority of the 33 government ayurvedic dispensaries (GADs) located in rural areas lack quality infrastructure, primary treatment facilities and basic amenities. Complete absence of Ayurvedic treatment facility in urban pockets of the district has been hampering its growth and development. Setting up of a quality Ayurvedic hospital at places like Rourkela city is of utmost importance for people having faith in the age-old alternative mode of therapy with proven credentials but these centres have large scale vacancies of Ayurvedic physicians, assistants and support staff apart, they added.
Government Ayurvedic practitioners said rural people come to the GADs for various types of treatment on their own. Cases of arthritis, diarrhoea and several chronic diseases too get referred to the Ayurvedic healthcare institutions if allopathic treatment does not serve the purpose. In the absence of an Ayurvedic hospital, patients have to be referred to Bhubaneswar, Puri or Balangir. The lack of a referral system from GADs to government healthcare institutions for pathological tests is also deterring people from opting for the ancient therapy, the doctors said..
Sources said most of the Ayurvedic dispensaries in the district function from rented buildings, sometimes under sub-standard conditions like leaking roofs and broken doors and windows. Only six such dispensaries have shifted to their own buildings in the last five years and at least 13 such dispensaries still do not have electricity or water supply, they added.
The government has allowed the dispensaries to acquire minimum 50 decimal land for construction of their own buildings but the process has not been taken forward as yet. It is learnt, as of now at least 12 of the 33 GADs have no doctors and some have been assigned to two GADs located at a distance of 90 to 100 km away. Worse, in some dispensaries the lack of Ayurvedic assistants and sweepers force doctors to do their work as well.
In-charge district ayurvedic medical officer Ananta Acharya claimed gradually things are changing. “Supplies of medicines, defective infrastructure and manpower deficiencies are being looked into. Marked improvement in the system would be become visible in some time,” he added.