Hyderabad: Bastis sans dawakhanas

Hyderabad: Even though the government has promised a basti dawakhana in every slum areas or at least two in each division, the residents are still awaiting for a health centre in Sultan Shahi and Murad Mahal areas. The locals have been appealing the government to establish a health care centre before the pandemic started, but their pleas have gone vain.

For health check-ups around 5,000 population of the combined areas of Sultan Shahi in Moghalpura division and Murad Mahal in Gowlipura division are forced to visit private clinics or Aliyabad health centre which are already flooded with locals.

"Since there is no basti dawakhana in our area, we are forced to approach nearby private clinics or hospitals for medical check-up or treatment. When other areas can have these government run clinics, why our area is being neglected?" asks Jaishankar, a resident of Gowlipura.

K Venkatesh a senior Congress leader in Old City, said that, before the outbreak of Coronavirus pandemic in March, he had given a representation to GHMC Commissioner DS Lokesh Kumar and GHMC zonal Commissioner (Charminar Zone) Ashok Samrat for the need of basti dawakhanas in these areas. He said he also suggested of converting community halls to a basti dawakhana, but still there is no progress and no clinics have been set up. "The government had promised two basti dawakhanas in each division but these areas sans health clinic," he noted.

In addition to the already functional 123 basti dawakhanas, the Chief Minister, K. Chandrashekar Rao has sanctioned 227 more taking the total number to 350 within GHMC limits.

Every basti dawakhana sees over 100 outpatients a day, and a total of 25,000 citizens avail the OP services daily across the city. The clinics provide 53 different kinds of free services, such as OPD consultation, basic lab diagnosis, medicines, antenatal/postnatal care, and screening for non-communicable diseases such as BP and diabetes.