Life-saving drugs going waste at Medipalli Primary Health Centre

Narsampet: At a time the absence of basic infrastructure is haunting the government hospitals in the rural areas, an incident of sheer negligence by the staff has surfaced at Medipalli in Warangal district. Huge amount of life-saving drugs has gone waste due to apathetic attitude of the staff at the Primary Health Centre in Medipalli.

The Medipalli Area Hospital was set up to offer round the clock medical service with an 18-member staff. It is the only hope of medical assistance for nearly 15, 000 villagers in and around. But no medical officer was posted here after the doctor holding the post was transferred three weeks ago. Adding woes, the negligence and callous attitude of the medical staff here has been troubling poor patients visiting the hospital.

The hospital staff had thrown the surplus medicines with the hospital in a pit in the backyard of the hospital fearing they might get caught during auditing. They even tried to destroy the evidence by setting fire. Villagers caught them red-handed and informed the media and the officials.

One of the villagers, Manku Mohan Reddy said that the medicines which were supposed to be distributed free of cost to the patients were piled up in the hospital. “They maintained a fake register in which they recorded that the medicines were distributed to the poor,” he added.

Nallabelli Tahsildar, who visited the hospital took the matter seriously and said that he would take up this matter with the higher officials. The villagers deplored the condition of the hospital and demanded immediate measures to set things straight.

By A Srinivasa Rao