The Sagara Taluk has lack of specialised physicians and helpers staff members in the Government Public Hospitals. The common people go for the medical treatment but the people do not get the deserved treatment for the problems of their disease. There is a shortage of specialised doctors and physicians in the hospitals and the Public Health Centre’s. The departments are run by some trained physicians and helpers as a helping staff. Also, the PHC’s are in the worst condition.
There are no M.B.B.S doctors, out of fifteen PHC’s seven centres has AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy says by the Taluk Health Officer.
The villagers have to travel to the Sagara Government Hospital for any major check-up or disease. The people say they need to call the 108 ambulance and take it to the Sagara Hospital. If there is any major case then the villagers had to go to the Shimoga which is another 70 kms from Sagara.
Sagara Taluk is a Malnad area with a population of two lakh ten thousand people, sixty five thousand people live in urban area and the rest of the population lives in the rural areas. So the health department comes under the Taluk Hospital in the town, and fifteen primary rural centres and one community centre in the rural area. It has also forty eight sub centres, it all comes under the health department. So, catering a population two lakh ten thousand people and a maximum distance from the city centre point to the last centre in the border area is around radius of 200 kms.
The doctors can treat their respective specialised field but if other issues or general issues come they can’t handle it. So, the private hospitals have a separate screening room where the general duty doctors or any M.B.B.S graduate can screen the patient to the respected doctors and make the following case can be led by the specialised doctor. The government is planning for these and may be implemented in the coming years. Only eye specialist will get eye patients no other patients, which the doctor can concentrate and deliver a good service. Right now, five of the PHC’s are run by the Ayush doctors given by the Government to fill up the necessary position under the Sagara Taluk health department.”
The doctors are not coming to the rural areas. The doctors says they are not equipped with well specialities, the doctors says they need basic facilities like good education for their children, infrastructure, water facilities etc. The doctors also say that the people are not co-operative sometimes; they come to them at any time and want the patients to be treated. The doctors too have a personal life, they need rests too. In fact, the people think the doctors are God and can save any patients which are not. One senior doctor had to look after two three hospitals and community centres which also becomes tougher for the doctors and as well as the patients in getting their treatment done.
Taluk Health Officer Mr. Achyut says “So, basically the health department are in two aspects to the public which is curative aspect and one is preventive aspect. In curative aspects all the hospitals have the facilities of interacting with the patients, diagnosis activities, after the diagnosis is done the patents are treated and the medicines are provided free of cost. In preventive aspects we are dealing with the public health problems causing so many diseases, either it may be communicable diseases or non-communicable diseases. There are preventive activities in the field also; the people are trained how to prevent the disease or control the disease, what measure the public should take with the co-operation of the health department. The patients will be educating in the hospitals as well in the village level also. There are also twenty eight government schemes or programmes implemented in the sub-centre level and primary health care level.
The villagers also face common problems such as Snake and venomous insect bites which need to be taken care immediately. Also, the villagers suffer heavy injuries during the climbing of arecanut trees which breaks down and cause several injuries to the people.
Local resident and businessman Mr. Ravi Prakash says “The government should provide the basic facilities such as good quarters for the doctors as well as the physicians or helpers around the hospital compound. There is no good electricity in the hospitals, there is no option if there is no electricity there should be a backup. Good and standard medicines should be supplied to the hospitals. The doctors say they are not well paid as they had invested in their learning. Also, the commission basis in the private hospitals also attracts the doctors where they can earn some extra money. Here, they have a specific time for the duty whereas they are independent in the private sector”.
The shortage of doctors as well as helpers or specialised technicians can hamper the situation. In some situation the doctors are accompanied by normal pharmacist or the helpers which are not trained. They work as a doctor with the prescription. This is also one of the problems in the villages.
Bangalore based Omnicures is a platform offering medical education courses and contents to doctors in the rural areas.
Dr. K. Santharam Gopal, President of All India Ophthalmological Society says “Digitized CMU that has been propagated by Omnicures and is I think propagated by Government of India is useful because you can hear the talks by the experts in the various fields of medicines not only ophthalmology but also in other fields of medicines at a time which is convenient to you rather than attending the CMU in a different place or in a distant place. So this is the main advantage of digitized CMU.
