Himachal: Treatment stopped, more than 18,000 villagers homeless due to closure of health centers

Himachal Pradesh: The Community Health Centre (CHC) at Kherian in Nurpur Assembly constituency, meant to serve over 18,000 residents of eight surrounding gram panchayats, has remained paralysed for the past nine months due to the failure of the state Health Department to appoint doctors. The crisis began after the sole doctor posted at the centre retired in October last year. Despite having two sanctioned doctor posts, the Health Department has failed to post even one medical officer since then.

The affected panchayats—Kherian, Minjgrah, Baruee, Nagni, Bhadwar, Khel, Pundar and Baghni—now find themselves without basic healthcare access. The six-bed indoor facility at the CHC is non-functional and the out patient department (OPD) services have also come to a halt due to the absence of a doctor. Although support staff including a pharmacist, staff nurse, laboratory technician and a Class IV employee are present, their services remain underutilised without a doctor to lead medical care.

A fully equipped 108 ambulance service, stationed at the CHC to handle emergency patient transfers to Civil Hospital, Nurpur, and Tanda Medical College, Kangra, is also lying unused. The vacuum in healthcare provision has forced villagers to rely solely on the Primary Health Centre (PHC) at Rinna in Bhadwar panchayat, which is overwhelmed and insufficient for the large population it now serves.

Established in October 2022 during the previous Jairam Thakur-led BJP government, the Kherian CHC was inaugurated by former minister and local MLA Rakesh Pathania, who had upgraded it from a PHC. Pathania now criticises the current Congress-led government under Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, alleging a total collapse of rural health infrastructure and calling the situation a betrayal of the CM’s “Vyavastha-Parivartan” slogan.

Meanwhile, Vikram Singh Bittu, pradhan of Kherian panchayat, has made a public appeal to the Chief Minister to intervene and ensure immediate appointment of doctors at the CHC. Dr Dilwar Singh, Block Medical Officer (BMO), Nurpur, confirmed that repeated requests had been sent to higher authorities regarding the vacant posts, but no action has yet been taken.

Residents of these panchayats continue to suffer due to bureaucratic apathy and political inaction, as a critical health institution remains in limbo.