Shivrajpur primary health centre has a silver lining

KANPUR: The public health centre (PHC) at Shivrajpur, about 47 km from here, is an exception in many ways. Doctors and medical staff here are considerate and they try to offer best possible treatment to patients. Besides, most of them live in nearby areas and can be contacted even during odd hours.
Talking to Times News Network on Friday, an employee of the PHC said that preserving costly vaccines had become a herculean task for them as the area did not have electricity for weeks together.
"But we are trying to serve the local populace to the best of our capacity. With the limited resources that are available here we cannot offer much to the needy persons," he added.
However, Sukkhi, suffering from tuberculosis, was not ready to accept that patients were getting good treatment here.
"I have been taking medicines from here for the past two months but there is no improvement in my condition," she said adding that the PHC''s doctors had advised her to purchase some medicines from the market which were not available at the centre.
"I tried hard to convince them that I cannot buy costly drugs but to no avail," she added.
"This is a common refrain," said another PHC employee on the condition of anonymity. He added that they were being supplied expired medicines which did not provide any relief to patients.
"We advise people to purchase medicines from the market as we know that drugs issued from the centre will be of no use for them. But most of the patients here cannot purchase costly medicines," he added.
The centre has two medical offices Dr JP Chowdhary and Dr SJ Singh and a health visitor for women patients. Four sub-public health centres at Mustta, Birramau, Attai and Goodwal-Mauli villages have been attached to the Shivrajpur PHC by the health directorate.
Highlighting their problems, the doctors said that erratic power supply was hampering the PHC''s functioning. Long power cuts also affected the water supply forcing them to fetch potable water from far flung areas, they added.
Meanwhile, in a release issued to the press, principal secretary, medical health and family welfare, Sujit Banerjee said that a residential block for doctors had been constructed at the Juggaur PHC.
Claiming that this PHC had its own power and water supply, he said that medical officers had also been posted there and latest analgesic like Nemuselide were available with a host of other new antibiotics and essential medicines.
He also clarified that doctors were residing on the campus of Kakori PHC and a new building had been constructed there to upgrade it to the community health centre (CHC).