While the State Government continues to make its developmental claims in varied sectors, the sole Government built community health centre in this border region presents a drastically contradictory picture than the one presented by the authorities. The x-ray machine at the community health centre in Joshimath has been out of operation for about one year now while the ultra-sound machine has been out of operation for about six months. In addition to this, due to absence of a perimanent employee, the pathology section of the CHC is also found locked more often than open by people in need of medical attention in this border region of Joshimath in Chamoli district which has elicited even national and international focus at times considering its strategic importance due to the Indo-Tibet border region nearby.
The various problems at the Joshimath CHC are causing considerable hardship to the people already facing problems due to already existing deficiencies in civic facilitation. Such is the situation that the free of cost check ups provided to pregnant ladies by the government is not available here due to which the women have to get the tests done at high rates in private clinics. In recent days, there were cases of human-wildlife conflict involving villagers and bears reported from various parts of the district and in most of the cases, the victims were administered only primary treatment at the Joshimath CHC before being referred to higher centre for treatment.
The condition of medial health centres in the mountainous regions of this Himalayan state is reported to be poor in various parts of Uttarakhand with the health centres turning mainly into centres for referral to higher centres. Though there are expensive medical equipment and related items procured by the authorities in some places, these are lying unused due to varied factors. The public sentiment in such remote areas regarding the status of medical health centres is not in favour of the authorities, who they allege have remained apathetic to the obvious and major problems as in the case of Joshimath CHC. The people in need of medical attention and treatment, who arrive here from remote areas of the district and elsewhere from villages from from motor roads suffer considerably when they arrive here only to find that the service they are in serious need of is not available. locals state that the ancenstral home of an officer concerned is situated about 100 metres from the medical centre and when the condition of the centre is reported in the local media, some improvements are made for some days only to be left aside a few days later as in the past. The Joshimath CHC in charge Dr Sanjay Gupta stated that the x-ray machine has remained closed due to lack of a building f0r it. The ultrasound facility has also remained closed due to absence of a radiologist. However, observers question whether such replies of the officials are enough to meet the need of the public which is in serious need for medical attention.