Baitadi, August 6:

Melauli primary health centre is not poor in terms of physical infrastructure. It has a well-equipped building and residential blocks for staffers. Despite this, people head to Indian hospitals whenever diseases grip them. Reason: The medical centre neither has medicines nor a doctor. Established in 2002, the centre has been coping with the absence of doctor and medicines for quite some time.

The health centre now has senior assistant health worker Jay Dev Joshi.

As per the government quota, the hospital should have a doctor and a health assistant. The centre was opened in 2002 to provide health service to people of 17 VDCs in the lower Sworad area. “Six years have passed, but we have not seen a doctor here. We go to India for treatment,” Dashrath Singh Nayak of Melauli-6, said.

“I donated the land so that locals could benefit from the health centre,” Dhani Dutt Bhatta of Melauli-2 Kanda said. Bhatta had donated one ropani and two anna of land. “The building of the centre was built at the cost of tens of millions of rupees, but it has failed to serve the people. My donation has gone in vain.”

The district hospital based in Baitaidi, the district headquarters, is a day’s walk from Sworad. Instead of three doctors, the district hospital has just one doctor, Dr Surya Prasad Bhusal.

Over 60,000 people of Sworad visit hospitals in Pithauraghad and Lohaghat of India because these towns are a stone’s throw away from Sworad, said Tara Chand, a local.

Medical staff on leave, peon in charge

KALIKOT: The Rarakatiya health post in Sukatiya VDC of Kalikot district is without health workers. All three health workers are on home leave, Upendra Sunar of Khukatiya VDC-4 said, adding that a peon has been running the health post for four months. Senior assistant health worker Rishi Ram Sharma, assistant health worker Aen Bahadur Shahi and rural health worker Bishnu Bahadur Shahi are on leave, he added. The patients are either taken to the district hospital based in Manma, the district headquarters of Kalikot, or left to the peon’s care, said Japi Lal Jaisi of Manma, who came to the district hospital to get his son treated. Most health personnel choose to stay in Ma-nma, Kalikot DPHO said. — HNS