Jajpur/Jajpur Road: Even though the population of Jajpur Road has crossed 1.5 lakh due to rapid industrialisation in Kalingnagar area, the region is facing acute neglect on the healthcare front as a super-specialty hospital that had been promised to come up here is yet to be delivered.
People living here are the worst sufferers due to the absence of a good government hospital. The area has a community health centre which caters to people in the district. The government had promised to upgrade the hospital into a super-specialty hospital with facilities for cancer care and kidney problems in September, 2015, but nothing has been done so far. The town has now turned into a hub of private doctors.
Doctors from Cuttack, Bhubaneswar, Jajpur and various other government hospitals on Jajpur Road flock here to make a fortune.
The doctors skip duty at hospitals and attend patients at designated points as private practice is lucrative for them.
Private clinics and around 20 medicine stores in the area indicate booming private practice of doctors in the area.
This happened due to the negligence of the government and the apathy of the political leadership. The area has only a 30-bed Community Health Centre which has not been upgraded. The posts of doctors in the medicine department, an assistant surgeon and dentist are lying vacant.
Three posts of staff nurse, laboratory technician, radiographer and pharmacist are also vacant. The hospital’s X-Ray and ultrasound machine are lying unusable in their rooms.
Healthcare is available only to those who have money to pay doctors. The worst sufferers are pregnant women visiting the hospital from far-off places.
There are allegations that doctors in the hospital often refer patients to SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack without treating them as they know they will not get much money from rural women.
MLA Preetiranjan Ghadai, who earlier represented ing orei, had drawn the attention of the government in 2011 for the development of the hospital, but nothing has been done so far.
When contacted, CDMO Dr RP Satapathy said the government is trying to turn the hospital into a super-specialty hospital, and that action will be taken against doctors who are skipping duty.
PNN