Hyderabad : Old City health centres hobbled shortage of doctors and medicine

Hyderabad: Public health care is in a pathetic state in the Old City. There is an acute shortage of doctors, nurses, and other paramedical staff in Area Hospitals, Urban Primary Health Centres and Basti Dawakhanas in parts of the Old City. The low manpower has adversely affected the efforts to create awareness on Covid-19, tests and the vaccination drive.

Covid-19 cases are increasing day-by-day and GHMC areas are reporting more than 1,000 cases daily. The overall number of tests under the GHMC limits has gone down. Even with a lower number of tests, the Charminar zone under GHMC limits is reporting over 50 cases daily. The number of tests conducted is not more than 150-200 per day. Of this, at least 50 people are testing positive. According to social activist Mohammed Ahmed, the number of infected people could be much higher, and if tests are increased, the actual situation can be known.

He said it has been observed that most people are suffering from cold, cough, fever and running nose. Due to lack of staff and non-availability of medicines at government health centres the people are visiting private clinics and are not undergoing Covid-19 tests.

Maybe they are suffering from seasonal infections due to cold weather, but if one tests positive, it may spread as an Omicron variant. To control the rapid spread of the virus, the health department must provide the necessary manpower, Mohammed Ahmed said.

The major UPHCs in parts of the Old City are at Malakpet, Puranapul, Lal Darwaza, Panjeshan, Darulshifa, Dabeerpura, and Ramnasthpura. In all these centres, there is an acute shortage of doctors. Even centres that have doctors face problems as they are irregular. Most of the time, only nurses or Asha workers would be present at the health centres.

There are hundreds of slum areas in the Old City and no awareness programmes have been taken up by the civic authorities, claim social activists.

According to a recent survey by the health care NGO Helping Hand Foundation in the urban slums of the Old City, access to primary care in bastis needs to be improved. Mujtaba Hasan Askari of HHF said the doctors at the Basti Dawakhana were not available. As a result, approximately 65 percent of people seek treatment at private clinics. Though the consultation fee is not more than Rs 50 or Rs 100, these doctors prescribe medicines and tests that cost nothing less than Rs 500 to Rs 1,000 per test, making the poor feel it is difficult to bear the expenditure.