Congress leader and former Minister Ganeswar Behera has written a letter to Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, demanding to set up a medical college in Kendrapada district.
Behera stated that though the Government has decided to set up three Government medical colleges in Kandhamal,Puri and Jajpur recently, it has not considered for one in Kendrapada district where healthcare is in a shambles.
The coastal Kendrapada district is the home to 14.22 lakh population with 3,21,934 house holds. It’s a district where 3.09 lakh SC and 9,481 ST people are residing. Both constitute 22 percent of the total population approximately whereas 68 percent people of the district are eking out their living with farming. So, the people of the district are not economically sound to afford private medical expenses.
Besides this the government hospital in the district are functioning with 65 percentage vacancies of doctors. Only 78 doctors are in position against the sanctioned strength of 225. Even, the District Headquarters Hospital is not having required doctors with 50 percent.