Y Merina Chishi
Noklak | June 24
The Community Health Centre in Noklak is the lifeline of thousands of people living in the Khiamniungan regions of Tuensang district. Every year hundreds of delivery and post-natal cases are handled by nurses working at the hospital. Without the presence of a gynaecologist or paediatric, chances of a mishap are very high. Even though some nurses have long years of experience, they still cannot handle complications or prescribe medicines without the doctor’s consent. All caesarean delivery cases are referred to the Tuensang district hospital.
The hospital currently has two doctors, one dentist and an AYUSH doctor appointed under the National Rural Health Mission. In the absence of any doctor appointed by the state government, these two doctors have to handle cases outside their area of expertise. In emergency delivery cases, both doctors assist nurses while the AYUSH doctor is compelled to perform minor surgeries. The doctor who is specialised in Ayurveda also prescribes allopathic medicines. On the other hand, the dentist’s duty is reduced to nothing as oral healthcare is almost nil around the region. In some cases, the dentist acts as a general physician in order to not disappoint patients who sometimes come walking all the way from Myanmar for checkups. “People here don’t see the difference. For them, doctors can cure any kind of disease,” the AYUSH doctor says.
The thirty-bedded hospital is also deprived of equipments and facilities. There is an X-ray machine without an operator and patients have to travel to Tuensang to get it done. The hospital handles maximum number of delivery cases yet there is no ultrasound machine. With increased voluntary HIV testing in the region, the Noklak sub-division is in need of an anti-retroviral treatment centre and a clinic for sexually transmitted infections which it still does not have.
The health centre was provided with an ambulance last year but it hasn’t been returned to the hospital by the family of a doctor working at the hospital who died in February this year. His dead body was taken to his native village in the hospital’s ambulance. The two stationed doctors do not have a vehicle and find it cumbersome to work under such conditions. Without renovation in the last twenty years, the hospital roof leaks and the hospital gets waterlogged every monsoon. The Noklak hospital, it appears, does not meet expectations even as health seeking is increasing among people living in the rural areas of Tuensang.
