Local people in the remote VDCs, including Rakathum, Daduwa, Bhuji, Gumdel, Gupteshwor and Rasnalu, in the district have been hit hard as due to a lack of health workers at local health posts.

Kapil Dev Prasad Adhikari, chief of the Betali Health Post, said though he requested the District Public Health Office (DPHO) more than a dozen times for medical personnel, authorities concerned have been ignoring his requests saying that at least they have him there and that other VDCs do not even have one. “I have a hard time operating the health post,” he said.

Like Betali, the Gumdel Sub-health Post is being run without even an assistant health worker.

According to a source at the District Public Health Office (DPHO), the number of posts lying vacant in health facilities across the district is so huge that the office is facing a hard time managing them.

Due to the lack of senior health workers like Assistant Health Worker (AHW) and Assistant Nurse Midwive (ANM), the sub-health posts in many remote VDCs are being run with female maternal and child health workers who are not authorised to prescribe medicines to patients. These few health workers, however, have no option other closing the health facilities when they have to go for the routine fieldworks.

According to the DPHO, there are 84 vacant posts for health workers, including doctors and assistant laboratory technicians, in the district. The district requires two medical officers, three staff nurses, two laboratory technicians, one radiologist, 13 health assistants, 44 AHWs and 19 ANMs at present.

Govinda Prasad Ghimire, a civil society leader, meanwhile, accused the concerned government agencies of being apathetic towards sending medical personnel to Ramechhap.

DPHO chief Dr Basudev Pandey said their requests through the years have fallen on deaf ears. He said the problem increased as the concerned agencies transferred health workers in Ramechhap to other districts but failed to fill the vacant posts.

The DPHO even took a test 18 months ago to temporarily fill the vacant posts but the office has not yet been able to publish the results.

“As the Public Service Commission has recently conducted examinations for health workers, we are hopeful of getting some of the vacant posts filled,” Pandey said.