Leap in healthcare for Asifabad

Kumram Bheem Asifabad: The long pending dream of people belonging to backward Kumram Bheem Asifabad district became a reality with the State government giving administrative sanction to establish a medical college in the district, which had been suffering due to poor healthcare facilities, on Saturday. They will cherish the historical move of the government forever. […]

Kumram Bheem Asifabad: The long pending dream of people belonging to backward Kumram Bheem Asifabad district became a reality with the State government giving administrative sanction to establish a medical college in the district, which had been suffering due to poor healthcare facilities, on Saturday. They will cherish the historical move of the government forever.

People of the district are still deprived of better healthcare amenities even after 75 years since the achievement of independence to India. They are currently forced to rely upon hospitals located in neighbouring Mancherial district and Chandrapur and Nagpur cities of Maharashtra for better medical services, by travelling for 60 km and by shelling out huge amounts.

---

Doctors not willing to work

Doctors do not show interest to work with a state-run hospital including district headquarters hospital, citing the backwardness and lack of amenities for education to their children and recreational facilities such as parks and movie theatres. Urban community health centres and primary health centres reel under staff crunch, hitting services and causing inconvenience to patients.

On the other hand, hardships of the dwellers of remote parts of the district get augmented in monsoon. Flooding streams affect the transportation system, isolating interior habitations. Pregnant women undergo nightmarish experiences to deliver a baby. They are rushed to primary health centres, wading through the streams by bullock carts. Few of them die while being shifted to a hospital.

Considering poor healthcare infrastructure, people of the district have been demanding the facility for over seven decades. But their dream continued to remain as mirage. Successive governments used their backwardness as a poll plank, but never tried to address their major challenges such as transportation and education, in particular an improved healthcare system.

Perks of reorganisation of districts

However, the people of this district began reaping the fruits of a separate entity that came into existence as part of reorganization of the district to simplify administration in 2016. They can easily reach their district headquarters for various needs. Importantly, they are able to find diagnosis of various diseases for free with the advent of Telangana Diagnostic Hub, a first of its kind initiative by the government introduced in 2021.

They are now jubilant over the announcement of the arrival of a medical college for the district. Srinivas Chiluveru, a native of Bareguda village in Bejjur mandal opined that the government’s decision cheered the people of the district, who had been demanding it for quite a long time. He stated that the medical college would bring respite to the residents of rural parts.