In Jalandhar, 8 of 14 rural health centres sans gynaecologists

Aakanksha N Bhardwaj

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Jalandhar, May 15

With eight of the 14 community health centres (CHCs) without a gynaecologist pregnant women in rural areas of the district have been at the receiving end.

Meanwhile, only one CHC has a permanent gynaecologist and the rest of the five have contractual doctors. Moreover, there is a 60% shortage of staff nurses, which affects the postpartum care also.

WALK-IN INTERVIEWS ON

There’s surely a problem. But we are conducting walk-in interviews for gynaecologists regularly. The government is trying hard to recruit them. Dr Areet Kaur, Director, Health services

The shortage paints a clear picture of the health system in the state. In rural areas, there are CHCs in Adampur, Apra, Bara Pind, Bundala, Kala Bakra, Kartarpur, Lohian, Nurmahal, Shahkot and Shankar village. While the CHCs in Basti Gujan, Dada Colony, Khurla Kingra and PAP come under the urban category.

There are five gynaecologists working in the local Civil Hospital at present, and even they aren’t enough to handle the high number of cases. At least three more gynaecologists are required, doctors say. The burden and workload is so high in the Civil Hospital that gynaecologists from the CHCs are called in for three days. Doctors say if there is an availability of the gynaecologists in the CHCs, they would at least identify high-risk pregnancies in advance and guide the expecting mothers in future.

A source of the Health Department said it was almost impossible to function with such a small number of the gynaecologists in the Civil Hospital. The situation is grave.

A Senior Medical Officer (SMO) from a CHC said: “Whenever pregnant women having labour pain comes to the centre, they are advised to go to the Civil Hospital in case C-section is required. But those belonging to villages situated far away from the hospital become helpless. Although the ambulance is always available on a call, but sometimes the distance is so long that family doesn’t agree,” he said.

“In such cases, sometimes the family either takes loan for the delivery to be done at private hospitals or they look for a midwife, which results in serious complications,” the SMO added.

Last year, a total of 32,000 deliveries happened in private and government hospitals, of which more than 8,000 took place in the Civil Hospital. The figures clearly suggest the burden on scanty gynaecologists present in the district and how miserable the situation is.