Bhubaneswar, Aug. 31: The state’s pathetically deficient healthcare infrastructure is to be blamed for the recent spurt in dengue cases. The disease threatened to acquire epidemic proportions in the state.

To make things worse for the government in such a situation, doctors in rural areas play truant with virtual impunity. Sources said hospitals and healthcare centres in many part of the Kalahandi-Balangir-Koraput (KBK) belt, which includes eight of the most backward districts of Orissa, urgently need infrastructural makeover. Many of the hospitals and healthcare centres also suffer from shortage of water and electricity, without which no healthcare facility can function.

“There are hardly any healthcare centres worth their name in the interior areas of these districts. Though things have improved slightly in Kalahandi, they remain as bad as ever in Nuapada, Koraput and Rayagada. Under such circumstances, diseases are bound to spread fast and assume epidemic proportions,” said a senior health official on conditions of anonymity.

Even in Sonepur district, which is supposed to be comparatively better in terms of infrastructure, the problem of erratic power supply continues to plague health centres. A former chief medical officer of the district had a first hand experience of the problem when he tried to use webcams to keep tabs on doctors in health centres. With power failure making it impossible to operate the computers, the webcams installed in the primary healthcare centres just did not function.

The situation appears to be a bit ironical considering that till a few years ago doctors used to cite lack of communication infrastructure, including absence of good roads, in the KBK belt as major factors hampering healthcare in the area. However, while the condition of roads has vastly improved in all the eight districts of the region, it is now poor infrastructure that seems to be standing in the way of providing quality healthcare to the people.

“Most of the hospitals have adequate stocks of medicines but they suffer from problems such as leaking roofs and poor water and electric supply. Another big problem is the tendency of doctors working in healthcare centres in the interior areas to play truant,” said an official.

Absenteeism among doctors has been rampant in rural Orissa, mainly in the KBK belt, where no one wants a posting despite special incentives offered by the state government.