People in Keran Sunday complained of inadequate healthcare and lack of basic diagnostic facilities at Primary Health Centre (PHC) situated at Keran tehsil of north Kashmir’s Kupwara district.
The residents said that the health centre was inadequately staffed due to which patient care had been badly hit. The residents said that only a few paramedics and a few doctors were posted here which was telling upon the smooth functioning of the health centre established decades ago. People alleged that in absence of X-ray and diagnostic testing facilities here, patients were forced to visit Sub District Hospital Kupwara.
“Due to non-availability of a gynecologist, pregnancy care has also been hit badly and women of the area face severe hardships,” said another local.
The locals have requested the concerned authorities and Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha to personally look into the matter and redress their grievances.
Block Medical Officer Kralpora Dr Mohammad Shafi acknowledged the hardships being faced by the patients and said that unless it was upgraded to a Sub District Hospital, gynecologists, dental surgeons, dental technicians, X-ray plant with technicians could not be posted here. He said, presently, four medical officers along with paramedics were posted here who were performing duties efficiently.
On why they perform duties on a “rotational basis”, he said since the area being snow-bound and remaining cutoff from the district headquarters for most part of the year, the employees here perform duties for 10 days at a stretch and then for another 10 days, the next group of employees joins duties. The BMO said that besides one oxygen concentrator, 10 oxygen cylinders had been kept available at PHC Keran to deal with COVID-19 positive patients.