Health Centre at Dedikote village in Kupwara lacks staff, basic facilities

by Shakir Ashraf

Srinagar

Though Jammu and Kashmir’s  Health department claims that it is providing effective health care in rural areas of the Valley, the Sub –Health centre Dedikote in north Kashmir’s Kupwara district is facing acute shortage of staff members which is badly hitting the patient-care.

he residents of Gulzarpora village in Awantipora township of Pulwama district say the Primary Health Centre (PHC) in the village lacks staff and facilities, forcing them to rely on market or health facilities elsewhere.

Locals told Kashmir Life that the poor healthcare facilities in the area are forcing them to rely on health facilities elsewhere and pay a huge amount of fair in order to shift a patient to district hospital Kupwara which is almost eight Kilometres ms away from Dedikote.

Ishfaq Ahmed, a local resident said  “Last week my brother was suffering from high fever. We rushed him to sub-centre but it  was locked.”

He said that then they paid fair of rupees four hundred to a driver to shift his brother to district hospital Kupwara.

“It is not possible for everyone to pay a fair of three hundred to four hundred. We demand that the medical assistant should be appointed so that people will not suffer,” he added.

This sub-centre was started in a rented house in 2017 and was inaugurated by then MLA Kupwara Mir Saifullah.

Locals said that their hopes were attached to it. For the first few weeks, the sub-centre was running quite properly but after that, it lost its steam.

“We are facing immense problems as there are no proper staff available in the hospital. Now everybody here prefers to visit  Sub District Hospital (SDH), Kupwara and sometimes Srinagar, for treatment,” said Iqbal Ahmad, Sarpanch of Dedikote.

Kupwara block medical officer Dr Zafar Ahmed told Kashmir Life the issues will be redressed very soon.

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