Shortage of doctors hits healthcare in Angul district

ANGUL: Lack of doctors and other infrastructure in Angul have adversely affected healthcare service in the district.

Apart from the district headquarters hospital, around 12 government-run community health centres (CHCs) and a few other hospitals are facing serious manpower crunch, sources said.

According to reports, besides the district headquarters hospital, there are three sub-divisional hospitals, nine community health centres (CHCs) and over 30 primary health centres in the district. Official figures state that though there altogether 242 sanctioned posts for doctors, a total of 124 are lying vacant.

There are a total of 50 authorised doctors' posts, but due to the crunch, majority of them have been transferred to other departments. Twelve of the 50 positions are vacant.The positions of district public health officer, district medical officer, additional district public health officer, and district public health officer have been vacant for a while.

There are 172 vacant positions for nurses out of the 246 that have been authorised for the district hospital. According to the authorities, 426 nursing positions are vacant out of the 706 authorised for the district's hospitals. Only 280 registered nurses are in charge of running the hospitals every day. All four staff nurse positions have been vacant for a considerable amount of time, sources said.

"We are taking a lot of proactive steps to improve the district's healthcare system. Although there are not enough doctors or nurses on duty, we are still able to provide treatment to the local population. We have informed the state government about this," said chief district medical officer Trilochan Pradhan.