Villagers in Chuwaban of Durgathali Rural Municipality and Budkhori of Chhabis Pathibhera Rural Municipality in Bajhang district are compelled to walk for more than five hours to receive basic health services.

The villagers said they have to walk for several hours to get paracetamols as there is no health facilities near these remote areas.

Janak Bohara, a local man of Budkhori, said villagers are facing more difficulties as there is no immunization centre and birthing centre near their villages.

“Patients are being taken on stretchers. Some of them even die on the way to the  health centres,” said Bohara.

Villagers said they could not find people in the village to carry patients during emergency. Shanti Mahat, a local woman of Chuwaban, said the majority of people are not immunising their children in her village as it takes several hours to reach the immunisation centre.

“People of Chuwaban have to spend the whole day to immunise their children,” she said.

Villagers said they only carry patients to the hospital after they got bed-ridden.

Giri Bohara of Budkhori said sick people only reach health centres after they are in critical condition.

There are 375 families (around 2,200 people) living in Chuwaban and Budkhori villages.

Dr Anup Regmi, chief of the District Health Office (DHO), said the DHO can establish a community health unit for Chuwaban and Budkhori villages.

“For that, we have to recommend the Department of Health Services to establish the unit after the local community or rural municipal office provides a land plot,” said Regmi.