Rautahat, July 10:

A sub-health post in Gamhariya Parsa village development committee of Rautahat district is being run from a cowshed.

A health worker attends patients in one room, while in the other a cow is tied to a post

on a mud floor.

The place is not at all hygienic, but the number of patients visiting it is no less than any other sub health post. At least 50 patients visit it daily, the staffers said.

The health post is housed in a clay-roofed room. It was provided by a local, Sekhful Mohamed, for use as sub-health post free of cost in 1995. During rains, the roof leaks and the floor gets slushy.

Three staffers — an assistant health worker, a rural health worker and a peon — are posted here. When a team of mediapersons reached the sub-health post, RHW Birendra Yadav was attending the patients.

A patient, Sabina Khatun (55), complained, “The sub-health post itself needs treatment. Patients get neither timely treatment nor medicines.”

Patients who go there for treatment are more likely to catch new diseases, a local Sheikh Juber said.

Locals also warned of agitation if the situation did not change for the better and authorities concerned did not construct a building for the sub-health post.

Another local Sheikh Jahir said their repeated requests to district public health office to house the sub-health post in a building had fallen on deaf ears.

RHW Yadav says lack of a proper building has certainly affected the treatment of patients. “Leaking roof damages medicines in rains,” he added.

He said AHW Shailendra Yadav had gone to the district headquarters to seek a solution.

Acting chief of the district public health office Gopal Shrestha said the VDC should construct a building for the sub-health post.

“Locals need to pursue the issue and press the VDC in this regard,” he added.