Health posts rendered non-functional without docs

The health posts which were setup with a purpose to ease pressure on the higher health centres in the State capital are virtually non-functional as the doctors deployed there are attached at other places.In absence of doctors Health visitors (senior nurses) are taking care of most of the health posts of the cities. There are nine health posts in the city which are located at Ballupur, Patelnagar, Khurbura, Dobhalwala, Dharmpur, Rithamandi, Yamuna Colony and Hakikatrai Nagar. Apart from them two Family Planning (FP) centres are based at Coronation and Doon hospital. These health posts have sanctioned posts of doctors, pharmacists and other nursing staff.  It was revealed that service of doctor is available at only Ballupur health post where Dr Sandhya Verma is posted. This health post too was devoid of doctor till few days back as Dr Verma was on Char Dham  Yatra duty. It was learnt that four doctors, Dr Natasha Sharma, Dr Deepa Goyal, Dr Shruti Dhulia and Dr Neelam Jangpangi though posted at these health posts but are attached at Doon Female Hospital. Similarly Dr Mamta Pangati and Dr Sujata Singh are on study leave while Dr Anshu Arya is attached at Police line health centre.  

In absence of doctors the patients do not prefer to visit these health posts. “Earlier people from our locality used to visit health post but now since there is no doctor here so no one visits it,” said a Dharampur resident.The Chief Medical Officer (CMO) of Dehradun Dr S P Agarwal told The Pioneer that the doctors are attached to other places as less patients visit these health posts. It is worth mentioning here that there are nine Urban health centres also in the city which are working under Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode. These health centres are located at Deepnagar, Bhagat Singh Colony, Adhoiwala, Bakralwala, Race Course, Kishan Nagar, Seema Dwar, Majra and Jakhan are working properly with services of doctors. Six of these health centres are operated by an organization Samarpan while three are being run by ‘Society of People for Development’. The medical health and family welfare department provides a budget of Rs 20 lakh per unit per year to the private player to run these centres.