Assam: Health facilities in tea gardens paint a gloomy picture in state

176 gardens in state have no healthcare facilities

Staff Reporter

GUWAHATI: The health facilities in the tea gardens in the state paint a gloomy picture. Only 414 of the 800 tea gardens in the state have tea garden hospitals, 210 gardens have dispensaries, and 176 gardens have no healthcare facilities.

According to the performance audit report of the CAG, the teams that visited around 26 tea garden hospitals in the state found them (hospitals) in shambles. The teams visited Amluckie, Burapahar, Salonah, Longai, Dolo, Kurkoorie, Rukong, etc., gardens in the state. The teams found that nine of the 26 hospitals were in poor condition with broken ceilings, cracked walls, and unhygienic minor operation theatres/wards/dressing rooms. They also found seven dispensaries with deteriorating buildings. Even 15 tea garden hospitals lack drinking water facilities.

The audit team was also not satisfied on the doctor and medicine fronts. Only 15 of the 26 garden hospitals have full-time doctors, five have visiting doctors, and six have no doctors at all. The teams found no doctors in the ten dispensaries where pharmacists and nurses were prescribing for treatment to the patients. Though the visiting doctors need to attend the hospitals daily, they visit only once or twice a week. Significantly, no drugstore in any of the hospitals has refrigerators for the storage of temperature-sensitive drugs.

The teams met some of the doctors of the gardens and took their views. Some of the doctors let the visiting teams know that their lives were fraught with danger, as sometimes garden populations turn aggressive by claiming shortfalls in treatment.

The team also met some cross-sections of the public. Twenty-eight percent of the public expressed their dissatisfactions over the available medical facilities in the tea garden hospitals. They said that health was the most pressing problem for garden workers because of the non-availability of full-time doctors and medicines for various illnesses.

According to sources, doctors are reluctant to go to tea garden areas as they have no other avenues in such areas, besides not getting remunerative salaries. Doctors feel that they cannot extend proper treatment in gardens due to a lack of medical facilities and medicines. Only a few gardens have been maintaining their hospitals properly, not the rest.

 Also read: All Adivasi Students’ Association of Assam slams government’s preparations for selling tea gardens (sentinelassam.com)

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