Despite facilities, staff crunch plagues area hospitals

Kothagudem: There seems to be letup in problems faced by villagers, especially the expectant mothers, in getting the required medical help in the existing area hospitals.

It may be recalled that Roads and Buildings Minister Tummala Nageswara Rao inaugurated the 100-bedded upgraded area hospital at Bhadrachalam on July 24. Similarly, Health Minister Dr C Laxma Reddy inaugurated the upgraded area hospital at Manuguru two months ago.

The Bhadrachalam area hospital, upgraded at a cost of Rs 19 crore equipping it with the state-of-the-art medical equipment, remained shut for want of appointment of staff nurses and medical officers to various departments. Similarly, the Manuguru area hospital upgraded at a cost of Rs 3.15 crore has no required staff members.

Pregnant women, especially those belonging to Gundala, are facing many a hardship. Recently, because of the heavy rains, an expectant mother, Esam Nirmala, had tough time crossing the Mallanna Vagu which was in floods. Similarly, four other expectant mothers faced several hardships to undergo delivery.

At Chandrugonda primary health centre, it was found that one of the medical officers was leaving the hospital at 12 noon without working for full day. He was stated to be unavailable in the hospital when victims of bus accident were brought to the hospital recently.

At Gummadivelli primary health centre, officials are running the hospital with a single medical officer posing problems to the patients.

Similarly, Chunchupalli and Lakshmidevipalli mandals have been created one year ago but no PHC has been set up. The people of the two mandals have no option except visit the hospital at Kothagudem to receive treatment. The medical officer at Karakagudem is not available for the past one month as he was tipped to have quit the post. The officials appointed a medical officer from Manuguru on an ad hoc basis.

In Gundala mandal, five health sub-centres have been constructed at a cost of Rs 46 lakh several years ago, but the medical and health department is unfortunate to put them to good use. In Charla mandal, one of the two medical officers at the PHC is not residing locally. Besides, the PHC at Charla the one at Satyanarayanapuram is facing shortage of oxygen cylinders.

In 719 villages under the limits of 29 PHCs in the district, synthetic pyrethroid insecticide is being sprayed by the staff engaged. As the malaria department has no funds to pay them wages, Bhadradri-Kothagudem District Collector Rajiv Gandhi Hanumanthu got Rs 25 lakh released to the department from various other grants.

Solar inverters supplied to the medical and health department in the district are not working. Seven inverters became dysfunctional in PHCs at Pinapaka and Penagadapa and other places. This has been causing administrative problems. Though the issue was taken to the notice of the higher authorities, the problem remains to be solved.