Hyderabad: Patients bear the brunt of health workers’ long commute to work

HYDERABAD: The staffers’ long commute to work — of up to six hours in some cases — is adversely impacting the medical care offered to poor patients at primary health centres (PHCs), community health centres and sub-centres in the state.


This has come to light in a latest report prepared by the Telangana health department, which shows that 90% of the staff at these centres live outside their service area and spend a lot of time — up to six hours — in travelling. The result is poor attendance.

The report, charted as a preliminary exercise to understand how the human resources can be utilised best , also found that the lack of CCTV cameras and biometric attendance systems in these PHCs and sub centres led to patients often returning without getting the required service.

As a way forward, the report had suggested that, “Service Area of PHCs and Sub-centres should be rationalized and staff should be positioned accordingly. Also dysfunctional units should be closed,” the report stated listing the challenge of distance of travel as a major challenge.

Regarding the lopsided distribution of staff, however, the biggest gaps were found in placement of specialists for women and children care. As against a sanctioned strength of 10,250 auxiliary midwives (ANM) in PHCs and sub centres, there are just 8,546 ANMs working at present. Also, there are only 42 CAS specialists (obstetrician, anaesthesiologist and paediatrician) as against the sanctioned strength of 123.

The report also highlights the dearth of 584 LD computer and data entry professionals. As against the sanctioned 727, just 143 posts were filled.

On the other hand, personnel like medical officer, lab technician, pharmacist and medical officers were working over the sanctioned strength for the posts. “There are PHCs with none/less supervisory cadre. The staff working in primary health centres (PHC) with good out-patient and in-patient performance are overburdened. Staff is sanctioned without taking into account the service area (eg. no. of sub-centers) and needs of the population catered,” read the report.