Gandhwani (Madhya Pradesh): Tall claims of the state government for providing state of art health facilities to people residing in remote areas have fallen flat once again here in Gandhwani tehsil of Dhar district.
In a fresh case, the lack of an ambulance and Janani Express facility at the Gandhwani community health centre forced the family of an ailing person to spend a huge sum to bring the patient to the centre.
Narrating their plight, family members of one Yash Patel, who met with a road accident and got his leg seriously injured, said after waiting for an hour, we decided to arrange a vehicle to take the injured to the community health centre, from where doctors referred him to Barwani district hospital.
Yash’s family members said they couldn’t delay taking him to CHC as he was suffering a lot.
Staff members at the CHC informed us that the ambulance which was available here was sent to the district headquarters about 15-day back due to some technical snag.
Similarly, the centre runs out of Janani Express vehicles and despite Gandhwani being one of the biggest tribal areas, people here have to seek help from the Jeerabad health centre.
Since Jeerabad is also a big area, Janani Express is rarely available. Family members of pregnant women have to arrange their vehicle to bring expecting mothers to the CHC. Even in the event of a referral, they have to spend money from their pocket for transportation.
One of the social workers from Gandhwani, Walia Chauhan said that the Gandhwani area is a big tribal-dominated area and there should be an organised ambulance facility since many of the people here can’t afford to arrange a private vehicle. So, the government should pay more attention to this and provide ambulances having all the necessary facilities.
When contacted Dhar chief medical and health officer Dr Shirish Tiwari said that if the ambulance allotted to Gandhwani is not functioning, then we will try to provide a new ambulance after raising the matter in Bhopal.
