Mulugu: In an effort to provide medical assistance to tribals living in remote areas at their doorsteps, the state health department has set up a prefabricated health sub-centre, known as “Container Hospital”, to provide emergency medical treatment to people living in the remote agency area of Pocharam in Bandhla Gram Panchayat of Tadvai mandal in Mulugu district. Equipped with doctors, necessary equipment and medicines, the hospital will move around the villages to provide medical assistance to tribal families. The mobile unit will examine suspected patients and medicines will be administered as per requirement.
According to health officials, the main objective of the initiative was to serve five tribal villages, which are cut off from the main area for two to three months during the rainy season. “Due to lack of transport facilities, it is becoming difficult for medical staff to visit remote villages and provide treatment to the tribals. Hence, the Mulugu district collector took the initiative and set up the container hospital,” officials said. The Rs 7 lakh container hospital designed in Hyderabad has separate rooms for nurses and health officials. It also has a small laboratory, which provides treatment for seasonal diseases and snake bites as well as delivery facilities for pregnant women. Women and Child Welfare Minister Danasari Anasuya recently launched the facility.
The mobile unit will serve as an additional health sub-centre for Narasapuram, Aligudem, Bandhala and Bolepalli villages around Pochapur in Bandhala gram panchayat of Tadwai mandal. A local auxiliary nurse midwife (ANM), a local health assistant and a casual worker and a security personnel have been appointed to manage the container hospital. Though the doctors will not be permanently posted there, they will visit once or twice a week. In case of emergency, the mobile unit will be used as an ambulance to take patients to nearby primary health centres or government hospitals, an official said. Health officials hope that the container hospital will play a vital role in providing healthcare in remote tribal areas, especially during the ongoing monsoon season.
