CHENNAI: Beyond the walls of what looks like an untroubled island within Tamil Nadu Slum Clearance Board premises at Perumbakkam where a Primary Health Care centre is situated, all seems to be not well.
The only doctor on duty comes in at 9 am, but does not stay past 11 am on most days, lament local residents. The doctor is mandated to stay in the Centre till 4 pm, they point out. But, it does not happen.
Express visited the Centre twice, in a gap of three weeks. Both times, it was the single nurse on duty who doubled up as the doctor. There is just this nurse and a compounder in this PHC that is supposed to cater to a population of 13,000 families, most of them who have been evicted from central areas of the city and resttled in TNSCB tenements here.
Express visited the centre along with a resident who was suffering from toothache. She was given 2 tablets by the staff nurse, and asked to drink plenty of water. Till recently, the sanitary worker was writing the prescriptions, alleged the residents.
Worse still, residents said that until recently, the hospital worker (sanitary worker) on duty wrote prescriptions and supplied available medicines. On days when there was a staff shortage, this hospital worker took on an entire shift himself which meant that he was the only person in the entire hospital, handling any case- emergency, or otherwise, that came to him, endangering the lives of the average 160-180 patients that visited the PHC daily. In many cases, he is taken to be the doctor by residents who earnestly hang on to his every word.
"Such is the value for our lives. For a long time, we thought he was the doctor and locals here still ask him for medicines. It is not the hospital worker's fault. If the doctor had been on duty in the mandated hours, why would sanitary worker be forced to take up this work too," said Priyadharshini K, a resident of the tenements.
A few hospital staff Express spoke to, confirmed that this was indeed the case but now he has been asked to stay away from attending to patients. Now, the pharmacists and nurses take over the work of treating the patients after the doctor leaves.
No maternity care
Perumbakkam is one among the four of the 40 PHCs under the Chengalpattu health unit district that do not have maternity care. With its population of over 50,000, there would be around 80-100 EDDs (Estimated Date of Delivery) for a given day. All these cases are sent instead to other health centres- private and public.
According to official data, the Medavakkam health care centre presently handles most number of deliveries of the 40 PHCs, handling 38 deliveries in the last month. Express found the labour ward and the Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) ward at Perumbakkam PHC to be locked.
When contacted, a senior health department official said the hospital worker was not authorised to treat patients and that he would personally inspect the PHC. As for maternity care, he said since the Perumbakkam PHC was new, maternity care services have not been initiated yet."We have the infrastructure in place and we will begin maternity care soon."