In Murbad, a delivery is always ‘complicated’

The doctor who handled Tulsa’s case points to lack of infrastructure. “We cannot do a Cesarean delivery,” says Dr Kishore Jadhav.

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Following a HC order in September 2013, the Tokewadi Public Health Centre (PHC) was to have been replaced by the ‘Tokewadi Rural Hospital’ by December 31, 2013. The signboard has indeed changed, but services have not got an upgrade and the building remains incomplete. The government’s latest affidavit calls it “nearly complete”.

Another staffer claimed the centre had provision for 25 staffers, including three medical officers, one medical superintendent, seven staff nurses and four ward boys. “Most of the posts haven’t been filled. We don’t even have an X-ray machine. A rural hospital caters to over one lakh villagers but we have only six beds,” he says.

Dr Jadhav, incidentally, sleeps in his chamber — the nearby quarters for doctors are a mess. “Rats scurry around over there,” he says.

“PHCs in the area have Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine and Surgery doctors who are not allowed to carry out deliveries. We do not have MBBS doctors here. We visited Murbad taluka on Saturday. There is a need for substantial improvements,” Assistant Block Development Officer of Murbad, Sushant Patil, said. On Tulsa’s case, Patil said her foetus may have died inside her due to the bad condition of roads while she was being taken to Ulhasnagar.

Nearly 120 km from Mumbai, the village of Moroshi with around 100 households is home to people mostly working as daily wage labourers. Its own PHC has a similar tale.

On February 23, the day Newsline visited, the doctor on deputation had just arrived. Dr Shreedhar Bansode said he received the letter asking him to join duty at Moroshi PHC only on February 6 and could join only on February 23. The Moroshi PHC has five doctors on deputation, on a rotational basis, but none has performed a delivery in the past month, records show.

Activist Indvi Tulpule has filed a PIL in the HC. “Women in labour travel over 50 km without medical aid, leading to high maternal mortality rates,” says Tulpule.

This is despite the Janani Suraksha Yojana of the National Rural Health Mission providing for ‘ashaworkers’ or health workers to identify pregnant women and prepare a birth plan for each. Manda Wagh, who has not received her salary of Rs 500 for the past three months, reveals that workers like her have to attend to leprosy and TB patients too.

In a recent meeting between villagers from Murbad and Shahapur talukas and the administration, several issues were discussed. “Around 60 per cent of total deliveries don’t get the guaranteed health services,” says Tulpule.

aamir.khan@expressindia.com