Suhail Bhat
Srinagar, Mar 25: A Primary Health Centre (PHC) in Hapatnad, a tribal village in South Kashmir’s Anantnag district, is operating in a makeshift building as work on new building is yet to be completed despite lapse of six year.
According to locals, the construction process has been allegedly caught under an appalling political fiasco where politicians want the credit of its construction under their belt thereby halting the delivery of health services to nearly 1000 inhabitants of this far- flung- tribal village.
“There is no gynaecologist, no dentist, no nurses and a single BUMS doctor has been appointed to carry out all the functions with couple of other employees with multiple roles. Laboratory testing machines, like x-ray machine, Electrocardiogram are not available and a single microscope available to carry out the basic tests is defunct. There are no emergency drugs available and the only available ayurvedic drugs have expired,” said the locals.
“Our village is cursed. When National Conference was in power we had an MLA from Peoples Democratic Power and now the situation is vice-versa. Look at the condition of our PHC, our cowsheds are much bigger and cleaner than this,” said Sarpnach Dilawar Khan.
Mohammed Yakoob, a local who donated land for the construction of the PHC said he was told that he will be employed in the hospital. “I did not take a single penny from them. I have had pleaded my case to the Medical Officers and both the legislators but faced rejections and delays. Now I regret my decision. I would have grown crops worth Rs 3-4 lakhs on this land,” he said.
Block Medical Officer, Dr Abdul Rashid said not only people but the medicos are suffering as well due to delay in completion of the building. “There is no toilet here. Who would like to work here? If six patients would come together the building might collapse. It’s very weak. We are scared,” he said.
When contacted, the Chief Medical Officer, Fazil Ali, said that the construction is carried out by NABARD and they have not received a ‘single penny’ from them in the current financial year’. “Non availability of funds has dented the construction process. I have been continuously writing to NABARD over the issue and we are also facing the same problems at Sali and Awer,” he said.
When asked about the dearth of doctors, non availability of emergency medicine and the expired drugs allegedly being given to patients, he said, “This is a newly sanctioned health centre and the overall process might take some time. We also don’t have a proper infrastructure to house all the required Doctors and paramedics. Once our new building is complete we will sanction the complete staff to the health centre”, he added.
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