Post News Network
Puri, Feb 3: Shortage of doctors and other staff has badly hit health services in the district. This was revealed at a district health committee meeting here recently.
According to official data, posts of 56 doctors, 25 staff nurses, one matron, two health assistants, seven pharmacists and one food inspector apart from 274 non-gazetted and 483 Class-IV posts are lying vacant in the district.
Of 241 health sub-centres, about 170 do not have the required infrastructure. Recently, the state government has sanctioned `25 lakh each to the sub-centres for construction of buildings. District health committee sources said authorities have identified government land for construction of 68 sub-centres. However, land for the remaining sub-centres is yet to be identified.
The meeting also said `21.17 crore was sanctioned for the district for child-care programmes, vaccination and other programmes in 2013-14 fiscal. The district health department, however, spent `16.98 crore out of the sanctioned amount.
Of `12.5 crore sanctioned for disease control programmes in 2013-14 fiscal, the health department is to utilise around `2 crore. Similarly, out of `23.46 crore sanctioned under National Health Mission in 2014-15 fiscal, the health department has utilised `17.14 crore so far.
The health committee has decided to renovate and upgrade facilities at several hospitals under district health mission.
