Puthuvype has, at present, only a one-room facility to serve as the Primary Health Centre where the doctor, nurses, and the clerical staff work, in addition to the pharmacy that functions inside.
The services of the PHC were shifted to the one-room facility after the floods earlier this year.
For over a year, the poor state of the infrastructure of the Puthuvype PHC, which used to function from the main building, has been calling for attention after a ceiling fan fell down and the roof too collapsed. Fortunately, there was no casualty.
The PHC had become dysfunctional in the floods after it was inundated by water.
The out-patient services were then shifted to a small shed with two rooms attached to the main building.
One of the two rooms is earmarked for immunisation facilities, as the funds utilised through corporate social responsibility were under the head of creating such a facility.
The other room acts as the OP facility, pharmacy and the office.
Additional District Medical Officer S. Sreedevi said that steps were being taken to provide a new building by utilising the corporate social responsibility funds of an oil company.
K.K. Unnikrishnan, president, Elankunnapuzha grama panchayat, told The Hindu that an estimate had been prepared seeking CSR funds from BPCL-KRL. Work was about to begin on providing better facilities for the PHC. As far as the old building was concerned, it had to be demolished.
The Puthuvype PHC was one of the apt centres for elevation as Family Health Centre (FHC), but the number of out-patients and the need for making available better facilities at remote centres were, at times, not taken into account while considering PHCs for upgradation, said Dr. Deepa K.H., district president of the Kerala Government Medical Officers’ Association.
On an average, the PHC serves 60 to 70 out-patients a day. On Mondays, the number crosses 100, while on Thursdays, 150 to 160 persons come in as out-patients.
