Problems continue at the Barkas Community Health Centre (CHC), a 50-bed facility in Old City. Right from the lack of infrastructure to the dearth of medicines and staff crunch, several issues plague the facility.
To begin with, a Neonatal Stabilisation Unit (NSU) set up two years ago is a non-starter for want of nurses and electrification works.
“If put to use, cases of premature births can be attended to at the hospital itself but now we refer such cases to the Government Modern Maternity Centre at Nayapul. Several reminders to officials have failed to yield any positive outcome,” a doctor said on condition of anonymity. The ten-bed maternity ward here gets around 30 delivery cases every month.
There are seven doctors here, including two paediatricians, a dentist, a gynaecologist, an anaesthetist, a surgeon and a physician. However, as the operation theatre is ill-equipped, the anaesthetist and surgeon only attend outpatients suffering from minor ailments.
Although the hospital has a laboratory, there is no lab technician, forcing patients flock to nearby private diagnostic centres.
However, hospital authorities are confident that all problems would soon be addressed as the hospital has been selected by the National Rural Health Mission, and will soon receive funds for developmental works.
“An NRHM team will shortly visit the hospital and finalise the works to be taken up. On the staff shortage, we have informed our superiors who have promised to look into the issue,” says hospital superintendent B. Rajeev Raju.
