Idukki: Barely a year after it was installed as part of maintenance work, the ceiling of the inpatient (IP) wing at the Arakulam Primary Health Centre has already started to crumble.

The building has remained locked due to delays in restarting inpatient treatment, which was suspended during the COVID-19 outbreak and has yet to resume. Before the pandemic, the health centre served nearly 300 outpatients daily, and the IP wing was fully operational. Despite the sharp decline in COVID-19 cases and a return to normalcy, no steps have been taken to restore inpatient services.

Residents from Arakulam, Velliyamattom and Kudayathoor, who depend heavily on the centre for medical care, are now demanding the immediate resumption of inpatient treatment.

Meanwhile, there are ongoing efforts to upgrade the Arakulam Primary Health Centre to a Community Health Centre (CHC).