Kupwara: The residents of Mankal area of Langate Thursday expressed resentment against the authorities for lack of adequate staff at Medical Aid Centre.
They said as a result of this people were facing severe hardships.
The residents said that the health centre was inadequately staffed due to which patient care had been badly hit.
They said that only one employee had been deputed here which tells upon the smooth functioning of the health centre.
“The employee deputed here is a sweeper who looks after all the sections, be it vaccination, providing first aid or prescribing medicines to the patients,” said a local.
They said that although the health centre had four sanctioned posts of paramedics who used to join duty off and on but barring a sweeper no one among them bothers to visit their actual place of posting for the past seven months.
“The health centre is running in a wooden residential house which in no means fullfils the needs of the locals,” said another local.
He said that although the authorities had sanctioned a concrete building for this health centre, but despite the passage of several years it was not being completed.
The residents said that their area remains snow-bound during the winters and they suffer a lot with regard to the health facilities.
They said that their area remains cutoff for days together from tehsil headquarters Qalamabad due to heavy snowfall during winters.
The residents said that they have several times brought this issue to the notice of the concerned officials but nothing concrete had been done so far.
They have sought immediate intervention of the Chief Medical Officer Kupwara in this regard so that their genuine grievances are redressed.
They appealed the LG’s administration to upgrade the existing Medical Aid Centre to the next level so that they could avail the health facilities at their doorsteps.
Block Medical Officer (BMO) Langate, Dr Gowhar said that due to the Covid second wave, employees deputed at Mankal had to shift temporarily to other places to tackle the situation.
He said that entire Langate block suffers due to lack of doctors and paramedics.
“We manage things with whatever meager staff we have,” he said.