The State government has stopped supply of medicines to government hospitals in Attappady Hills.
This has put thousands of tribespeople from the area in extreme hardship.
No free medicines are being provided to outpatients for the last two weeks.
More than 400 patients, majority of them tribespeople, visit the OP Department at the Kottathara tribal specialty hospital. But the government supply not being enough, the patients are not given free medicine. Same is the case at the Community Health Centre at Agali, where more than 200 patients visit daily.
There are three Public Health Centres (PHCs) and 28 sub centres in Attappady where no medicine is being supplied free to the OP patients now.
There are five Mobile Medical units that used to organise medical camps in the remote tribal hamlets. They, too, now face the problem of no supply of medicine by the government. The tribespople of Attappady are economically backward and hence do not have the money to buy medicines.
