Puri: Baliput community health centre (CHC) in Puri Sadar block here has been suffering from myriad problems for the last several years.
Hundreds of villagers of Baliput, Rayagada, Jamarsuan and other gram panchayats have lodged a complaint in this regard with the state Health department secretary.
In their complaint, the villagers claimed that Baliput CHC has been going through acute shortage of doctors, staff nurses, pharmacists and attendants for last several days. As a result, the villagers are being forced to travel to the district headquarters hospital (DHH) in Puri city to avail healthcare facilities.
According to the complaint, the doctors and health staff at the CHC do not attend patients regularly. The hospital gets closed after attending patients for two hours in a day. “The doctors and health staff at Baliput CHC usually remain absent during working hours. The patients are being forced to wait for hours to get healthcare,” said the complaint.
According to the villagers, the state government has been providing medicines, injections and other health equipment free of cost to the CHC. However, a few unscrupulous employees of the hospital often sell these medicines to private drugstores.
“The state government has constructed quarters for the health staff at the CHC by spending lakhs of rupees. But, a majority of the hospital employees do not reside in the quarters. In emergency condition, there is no one to attend the patients,” said the complaint.
The villagers have urged the Health department secretary to take immediate steps to fill up the vacant posts at Baliput CHC. They also requested the health secretary to ask the hospital authorities to provide healthcare to people from 8 am to 10 pm in a day. Moreover, the villagers have pleaded for the deployment an ambulance at the CHC.
“The health secretary should direct the doctors and employees of Baliput CHC to reside in their quarters,” said a villager.
