Primary Health Care Centres’ still out of reach for pregnants in Kurnool

Kurnool: Pregnant women in certain regions of the district are unable to utilise the facilities available at Primary Health Care Centres as a large number of deliveries are done at home and traversing long distances to the health centres is posing as a deterrent.

The government has introduced many welfare schemes for pregnant women by allocating funds to the PHC’s located across the district. Around 83 PHC’s are functioning in the district of which 40 are meant to provide 24 hour care. Besides these, 20 Community Health Care Centres and 20 Urban Health Care Centres are also functioning.

Despite they are meant to function around- the- clock, medical staff at most of these 40 centres refer patients to Kurnool Government General Hospital to avoid the risk of attending the critically ill persons, thus putting an additional pressure on Kurnool GGH.

Among the maternity cases, around 76,820 deliveries have been registered up to July in the year 2014-15, of which 36,220 cases were in Government hospitals, 30,450 cases in Private Hospitals and 10,160 cases performed at home.

517 delivery cases have been registered so far at the 24 hours Health Care Centres. Many PHCs functioning under the 24 hour category have registered few cases and some of them have registered no cases.