Boudh/Talangaon: The government spends crores of rupees to boost healthcare in both rural and urban areas. However, some existing healthcare centres in remote and tribal-dominated pockets under Harbnaga block in Boudh district have been paralysed for want of doctors and staff.
People in these areas allegedly have no option but to seek treatment from quacks, traditional healers and witch doctors. The sorry state of healthcare has exposed the failure of institutional healthcare delivery system, a report said.
According to reports, Harbhanga is a hill-locked and tribal-dominated region. Most of the people are daily wagers. The government has set up two homeopathic hospitals at Kushang and Madhapur.
Healthcare has come to a halt for some days at the two hospitals for lack of doctors. Earlier, thousands of people in the two panchayats used to seek treatment at the hospitals, but they are now deprived of it.
“The hospitals have turned into haunted houses with no doctors at all. They are locked now. A peon only comes to Madhapur homeopathic hospital,” locals lamented.
This hospital was coming handy for people living in hilly villages like Kandara, Kachapaju, Silikuti, Kuchapaju, Sulugaon, Lengerapaju and Chhatrapada.
Social activists say, “As no doctor is available at the two hospitals, people resort to herbal treatment or knock the doors of witch doctors. Their condition often gets complicated for wrong treatment while some patients die.”
Though conscious people have been drawing attention of the healthcare authorities for revival of the homeopathic hospitals, their pleas have fallen on deaf ears.
They have demanded that the administration take quick steps for appointment of doctors at the ‘paralysed’ hospitals.
PNN