Community health centres in Himachal's tribal areas face shortage of specialists

Subhash Rajta

Shimla, January 17

Community health centres (CHCs) in tribal areas of the state are facing a shortage of specialist doctors. As per the Rural Health Statistics 2021-22, eight CHCs located in the tribal areas of the state don’t have even one specialist doctor against the requirement of 32.

As per norms, a CHC requires four medical specialists (surgeon, physician, obstetrician/gynaecologist and paediatrician) supported by paramedical and other staff. The CHC should have an OT, labour room, X-ray and laboratory facilities. These CHCs also face a shortage of nursing staff. Many Primary Health Centres (PHCs) also have a paucity of specialists and other employees.

“The department is aware of the situation and various steps have been taken to address the issue, including the recruitment of 300 doctors and introduction of mobile clinic service for hard areas,” said Dr Hemraj Bairwa, Managing Director, National Health Mission.

“The department has also come up with the concept of model Primary Health Centre, where the patients will get comprehensive treatment. Efforts are also being made to plug the gaps in the delivery of health services,” Dr Bairwa said.

The CHCs in tribal areas have only 23 nurses against the required strength of 56. The situation is worse in PHCs. There are only five nurses against the required strength of 45. The PHCs have only four lab technicians against the required strength of 45. Similarly, there’s a shortage of 35 pharmacists in 45 PHCs in tribal areas.

A major reason behind the paucity of staff at rural and tribal health facilities is having more CHCs and PHCs than required under the norms of the Central Government.

As per the norms, there should be one PHC for 20,000 people in hilly and tribal areas. In Himachal, there’s one PHC for around 11,500 people. Similarly, against the norm of having a CHC for 80,000 people, there’s a CHC for every 56,000 people in Himachal. The department, therefore, is forced to spread its resources too thin.

Primary Health Centres no better

• No specialist doctor is posted at eight community health centres in tribal areas against the requirement of 32
• Every CHC should have four medical specialists (surgeon, physician, obstetrician/gynaecologist and paediatrician) supported by paramedical and other staff
• Many Primary Health Centres (PHCs) are also facing a paucity of specialists and other staff