Idukki's Kanjikuzhy Community Health Centre on sickbed, faces acute amenity shortage
Neglected by local authorities, Kanjikuzhy Community Health Centre faces severe transport shortages, broken ambulances, unutilised medical wards, and dangerous staff quarters, leaving marginalized residents struggling during medical emergencies without basic amenities.
Neglected by local authorities, Kanjikuzhy Community Health Centre faces severe transport shortages, broken ambulances, unutilised medical wards, and dangerous staff quarters, leaving marginalized residents struggling during medical emergencies without basic amenities.
Neglected by local authorities, Kanjikuzhy Community Health Centre faces severe transport shortages, broken ambulances, unutilised medical wards, and dangerous staff quarters, leaving marginalized residents struggling during medical emergencies without basic amenities.
Idukki: The Kanjikuzhy Community Health Centre (CHC), a crucial lifeline for patients from marginalized and tribal communities, is languishing under utter neglect and an acute shortage of basic amenities.
For the past six months, both of the hospital’s ambulances, which have surpassed their operational lifespans, have been completely grounded. To make matters worse, the utility jeep used for essential hospital duties has also been abandoned in a shed. With no official transport available, local residents have no choice but to shell out hefty sums for private vehicles during medical emergencies.
Located in Thallakkanam, this public healthcare facility operates under the Idukki Block Panchayat. Yet, locals allege that elected representatives have turned a blind eye to its plight, failing to pay even a routine visit. Since the change in the local governing body, the Hospital Development Committee (HDC) has not convened a single meeting. Furthermore, free lunch distribution for inpatients was abruptly halted over a year ago.
While the centre currently has adequate doctors and medicines, the dire lack of fundamental infrastructure turns seeking care into an ordeal. A newly built pay ward, constructed during the tenure of the previous Block Panchayat, is yet to be inaugurated or made operational. Meanwhile, complaints are mounting that the brand-new beds and medical equipment allocated for the ward are gathering dust and falling into disrepair.
The living conditions for the medical staff are just as precarious. With no proper staff housing, doctors and essential personnel are forced to risk their lives lodging in three decaying, dilapidated quarters that are on the verge of collapse.
As the primary medical refuge in Kanjikuzhy, the district's largest panchayat, crumbles under bureaucratic apathy, local residents are demanding that the authorities step in immediately to administer an emergency revival to the ailing hospital itself.