Due to the shortage of doctors in the mountainous districts of Uttarakhand, the primary health centres and district hospitals are in bad shape due to which the locals are facing major hardships in trying to access proper medical care facilities.
The State Government appears to be according little important to the need for proper medical facilities in the mountainous regions of Uttarakhand in spite of this being among the major demands of the public since the State was created more than a decade ago.
The general public opinion is that the Government has no specific transfer policy and doesn’t want to frame such a policy to ensure that doctors work in hospitals located in remote mountainous regions.While there is negligible shortage of doctors in the plains of Dehradun, Haridwar and Udham Singh Nagar districts, most lady and male doctors refuse to work in the mountainous regions.
Pauri district is Garhwal regional headquarter but the condition of Government hospitals here is pathetic as medical officers concerned try their best to make the system work in the face of severe shortage of doctors.
Chief Medical Officer Dr AK Singh said that under the preview of CMO, only 34 doctors are working in the district with 119 of the 153 sanctioned posts lying vacant. Only four of the 36 posts of specialist doctors are occupied. He said that 22 contractual doctors including 11 female doctors were appointed in the district, but none has assumed charge yet.
The condition of district hospital of Pauri and joint hospital in Srinagar Garhwal is bad but the joint hospital in Health Minister SS Negi’s hometown Kotdwar is satisfactory. In the joint hospital at Kotdwar, 16 of the 20 posts of doctors are occupied. While the district hospital is without a pathologist, there are two pathologists working at the hospital in Kotdwar.
In Srinagar joint hospital only five of the 11 posts of doctors are occupied. Chief Medical Superintendent Dr Savitri Uniyal said that in District Hospital Pauri only eight doctors are working and nine posts are still vacant while in District women’s hospital Pauri, only two doctors are working out of the nine sanctioned post and one doctor is absconding.
The report on this doctor’s absence has been sent to the government. She said that one post each of radiologist, pathologist, physician, ENT, cardiologist, eye surgeon, dermatologist, JDMO and two posts of EMO are vacant.
The night duty is being performed by five doctors. Dr Uniyal said that she had demanded radiologist and technician to start the CT scan machine, but so far no arrangement has been made by the Government.
It is worth mentioning here that the CT scan machine was installed in June 2013 at a cost Rs 1.89 crore. However, in absence of radiologist and technician to operate it, this machine has become another example of the glaring anomalies in the medical service system in Uttarakhand.