The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : State human rights panel visits Poovar health centre

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Friday, Nov 03, 2006
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Kerala

Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

State human rights panel visits Poovar health centre

Staff Reporter

Report will be sent to the Government

Thiruvananthapuram: The State Human Rights Commission (SHRC) will make its recommendations to the Government on the need for improving basic facilities and providing adequate number of doctors and nursing staff to health care institutions in the coastal belt.

SHRC chairperson N. Dinakaran visited the community health centre (CHC) at Poovar on Thursday along with other officials of the Health Department.

The Poovar CHC is the nearest health care institution for the people living in the area. Though this is a CHC and has a 20-bed in-patient ward, it does not have the staff pattern of a CHC.

There are four doctors, including a civil surgeon, whereas the sanctioned post of staff nurse is just one. The hospital is thus not equipped to provide round-the-clock care, despite having an in-patient ward.

However, doctors remain on call and two additional nurses are at present serving here on a working arrangement. Health officials pointed out that the issue had been taken up with the Government several times since 1997, to no avail.

Water scarcity

The SHRC team was told about the acute water scarcity in the hospital and the neighbouring doctors' residential quarters. Few doctors were willing to stay on at Poovar because of this problem.

A bore well is currently being dug to serve the out-patient clinic and wards. However, this was hardly enough.

SHRC team also went around the in-patient wards in the hospital, which are in a poor condition with leaking roof and bad electrical wiring. The doctors demanded that the building be either renovated or demolished for constructing a new one.

The team was also apprised of the fact that more land was required for the hospital to develop further.

Specialist services

The 1.4-acre campus has clusters of small buildings, none of which has been constructed to accommodate the needs of a hospital.

"We do not have specialist services or a Gynaecology Department to handle delivery cases. People are forced to travel 15 km to near-by Parassala or Neyyattinkara Government Hospitals for such services and many cannot afford it," a senior doctor here said. The SHRC chairperson said that a report would be sent to the Government with recommendations for developing the institution.

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