Atoizu| March 25 : Leaking roof, creaky beds, broken window panes and battered floor: It almost sounds like a scene out of a rundown movie. But this is the face of Nagaland’s pitiable public infrastructure. At Atoizu town, the primary health centre is no different. The four decades old healthcare centre is one forsaken place, where patients are most too often greeted by the absence of a doctor, no proper medical facilities and crumbling infrastructure.
Like most places, there is no quarter for the medical officer at Atoizu. According to locals, the doctor shares accommodation with the sub-divisional officer (SDO). It is reported that in the absence of the SDO, the doctor has no place to stay. Coincidently, when this reporter paid a visit to the hospital, a nurse was overheard speaking to the doctor in question. This reporter was told that the doctor was calling up from Wokha to find out if the SDO was in station so that he too could come.
The Morung Express has been featuring numerous stories on the prevailing condition of primary, community healthcare centres and district hospitals in the state; particularly in the interior and rural areas. The problem is the same everywhere- poor infrastructure, inadequate facilities, shortage of staff and absence of doctors. Even with the implementation of the National Rural health Mission (NRHM) and communitisation of the healthcare sector, conditions remain dismal.
The nurses on duty said that places like Atoizu don’t fit into either the state’s communitisation programme or the rural health mission. “We are just about been reduced to handling delivery cases and carrying out immunization drives. I think that is why the government is not paying much attention to us,” an aged nurse opined. They said small hammer and nail repairs are done at the centre’s expense but the government needs to do the rest.
They further said, or so they were told, that there was another doctor from the NRHM appointed for the centre. But till date they have not seen the doctor. They said that all these years their problems have always fallen on deaf ears. “If only we had someone to listen to our problems,” one nurse sighed.
The department of health and family welfare has been grappling with the issue of inadequate healthcare experts. The few doctors who are posted in the interior regions are found to be absent on most occasions. Lack of specialists is yet another problem. In most of the interior places there are no specialists. And even if there is, the right kind of equipments is not in place to keep their practice going.
Poor infrastructure is also a very big challenge for the department. Some PHCs and CHCs are on the verge of collapse and in need of urgent repair. Sanitation, electricity and lack of skilled staff to handle machineries are just some of the other problems. But with the Cabinet’s decision to create 140 posts in the health department and recent budget allocation, it should surely be able to overcome some of its problems.
Like most places, there is no quarter for the medical officer at Atoizu. According to locals, the doctor shares accommodation with the sub-divisional officer (SDO). It is reported that in the absence of the SDO, the doctor has no place to stay. Coincidently, when this reporter paid a visit to the hospital, a nurse was overheard speaking to the doctor in question. This reporter was told that the doctor was calling up from Wokha to find out if the SDO was in station so that he too could come.
The Morung Express has been featuring numerous stories on the prevailing condition of primary, community healthcare centres and district hospitals in the state; particularly in the interior and rural areas. The problem is the same everywhere- poor infrastructure, inadequate facilities, shortage of staff and absence of doctors. Even with the implementation of the National Rural health Mission (NRHM) and communitisation of the healthcare sector, conditions remain dismal.
The nurses on duty said that places like Atoizu don’t fit into either the state’s communitisation programme or the rural health mission. “We are just about been reduced to handling delivery cases and carrying out immunization drives. I think that is why the government is not paying much attention to us,” an aged nurse opined. They said small hammer and nail repairs are done at the centre’s expense but the government needs to do the rest.
They further said, or so they were told, that there was another doctor from the NRHM appointed for the centre. But till date they have not seen the doctor. They said that all these years their problems have always fallen on deaf ears. “If only we had someone to listen to our problems,” one nurse sighed.
The department of health and family welfare has been grappling with the issue of inadequate healthcare experts. The few doctors who are posted in the interior regions are found to be absent on most occasions. Lack of specialists is yet another problem. In most of the interior places there are no specialists. And even if there is, the right kind of equipments is not in place to keep their practice going.
Poor infrastructure is also a very big challenge for the department. Some PHCs and CHCs are on the verge of collapse and in need of urgent repair. Sanitation, electricity and lack of skilled staff to handle machineries are just some of the other problems. But with the Cabinet’s decision to create 140 posts in the health department and recent budget allocation, it should surely be able to overcome some of its problems.
National Rural Health Mission is flop: PAC
New Delh, March 25 (AGENCIES): Centres set up under the government’s flagship National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) are being used for everything but to provide health. Some of them have been turned into warehouses to store food grain, while some have been converted into cattle sheds where there is no place for the already reluctant doctors.
The big “disappointment” has been brought to light by parliament’s public accounts committee (PAC) six years after the ambitious scheme to universalize healthcare in the country was launched.
PAC also found several other flaws in NRHM. It noted that the health centres were being supplied substandard and expired lifespan medicines and there was a lack of trained health workers and absence of common drugs in many states.
“The committee was distressed to note that a large number of sub-centres, PHCs [public health centres] and CHCs [community health centres] had sub-standard environment and were functioning in unhygienic conditions. Besides, the health centres lacked essentials such as water supply and storage tanks, facilities for disposal of sewage and biomedical waste and separate utilities for men and women,” Chairman MM Joshi said.
The committee was “startled” to find that 71 PHCs (11%) in 15 states were functioning without an allopathic doctor. In 518 PHCs (86%) in 28 states/union territories, an AYUSH (ayurveda, yoga, unani, siddha or homeopathy) doctor had never been appointed and 69 PHCs test-checked in audit were functioning without allopathic or AYUSH doctors. “The availability of specialist doctors with respect to CHCs was equally worse and disappointing,” Joshi said.
PAC was surprised that the government did not conduct a performance assessment after the launch of the mission for necessary course correction. Taking note of the glaring deficiencies, infirmities and want of effective monitoring mechanism, it recommended a thorough reappraisal and restructuring of NRHM, so that shortcomings are removed.
PAC also suggested constitution of district and vigilance monitoring committees. It said each state needed to prepare a common formulary of essential drugs for mandatory prescription of generics by hospitals/doctors, so that poor patients are supplied good quality drugs on time and not fleeced. It was also critical of the public expenditure —merely 1.1% of GDP (50% of the target of 2-3% set under the mission) —on health.
The big “disappointment” has been brought to light by parliament’s public accounts committee (PAC) six years after the ambitious scheme to universalize healthcare in the country was launched.
PAC also found several other flaws in NRHM. It noted that the health centres were being supplied substandard and expired lifespan medicines and there was a lack of trained health workers and absence of common drugs in many states.
“The committee was distressed to note that a large number of sub-centres, PHCs [public health centres] and CHCs [community health centres] had sub-standard environment and were functioning in unhygienic conditions. Besides, the health centres lacked essentials such as water supply and storage tanks, facilities for disposal of sewage and biomedical waste and separate utilities for men and women,” Chairman MM Joshi said.
The committee was “startled” to find that 71 PHCs (11%) in 15 states were functioning without an allopathic doctor. In 518 PHCs (86%) in 28 states/union territories, an AYUSH (ayurveda, yoga, unani, siddha or homeopathy) doctor had never been appointed and 69 PHCs test-checked in audit were functioning without allopathic or AYUSH doctors. “The availability of specialist doctors with respect to CHCs was equally worse and disappointing,” Joshi said.
PAC was surprised that the government did not conduct a performance assessment after the launch of the mission for necessary course correction. Taking note of the glaring deficiencies, infirmities and want of effective monitoring mechanism, it recommended a thorough reappraisal and restructuring of NRHM, so that shortcomings are removed.
PAC also suggested constitution of district and vigilance monitoring committees. It said each state needed to prepare a common formulary of essential drugs for mandatory prescription of generics by hospitals/doctors, so that poor patients are supplied good quality drugs on time and not fleeced. It was also critical of the public expenditure —merely 1.1% of GDP (50% of the target of 2-3% set under the mission) —on health.
