Chhatrapur: There are 339 villages in Ganjam district that do not have ambulance facilities according to information available from the district health department.
There are 35 numbers of 108 and 39 numbers of 102 ambulances in the district. The 102 ambulances are meant to carry pregnant women and ailing children who are not more than one year old.
However, there are a large number of villages which ambulances cannot access to because of the lack of proper road facilities. Hence the residents of these villages experience huge problems. Most of the time, they have to transfer ailing patients on slings and cots and in the monsoons, their woes increase manifold. At times many patients die while being transported.
The district administration now has decided to give Rs 1,000 to each of the pregnant women in these 339 villages as transportation cost. This has been done as there are 18 other ambulances in different health centres. However, to utilise the services expenses have to be paid.
There is also a paucity of hearse vans in the district. The district headquarters hospital at Chhatrapur doesn’t have a hearse to transport dead bodies for which relatives of the deceased regularly face inconvenience.
There are in fact three hearse vans in the district, all managed by Red Cross. One is stationed at Bhanjanagar sub-divisional hospital and the rest two are attached to the MKCG Medical College and Hospital in Berhampur.
Till July, the hearse van at Bhanjanagar has transported 58 bodies while the two at the MKCG have carried 1106 bodies to their respective villages.
District health department sources said the ‘Rogi Kalyan Samiti’ has sent a proposal to the health department, requesting for a hearse van for Chhatrapur hospital. But the hospital is yet to get the vehicle.
PNN