Narainapur locals depend on free health camp for health check-ups

BY SIRAJ KHAN,Nepalgunj, July,1: Most of the people in Narainapur Rural Municipality, a remote and highly underdeveloped area in Banke district, have to wait for free health camps to receive proper medical services. 

Hospitals and health centres in the rural municipality do not provide quality services, compelling the locals to either hide their illnesses or wait for the periodic free health camps. 

Recently, at a free health camp organised in Narainapur by the Nepali Army's Shree Bajra Dal Battalion, most patients complained that they were deprived of treatment services due to financial constraints and lack of availability of health services. 

Nishadhar Pathanin, a 70-year-old woman of Narainapur Rural Municipality-6, walked an hour to reach the health camp because she was unable to afford to pay treatment fees to the health centres. She said that she had no other option but to walk for an extensive period despite her old age due to financial constraints.

She informed that despite suffering from body and chest pain for a long time, she did not receive treatment locally, and without money, it was not possible for her to go to Nepalgunj. She had no alternative but to endure her illness. 

Similarly, Nasim Khan of Narainapur-5 said that he was unable to get treatment for a long time due to financial constraints and had to wait for free health camps to get his health checked. He said that without these periodic camps, many residents of Narainapur would not receive any treatment. 

This is not only the suffering of Pathanin and Khan but many of the poor and underprivileged people of the rural municipality. They have demanded a permanent provision of good quality medical services in Narainapur, stating that buildings alone are not enough, and equipment and good doctors are also necessary.

Rabindra Shrestha, the chief of the Bajra Dal Battalion, said that a large number of locals came from far and wide to receive services, undeterred by the heat, upon learning about the free health camp. He informed that 670 people received health treatment and free medicine from the camp.

Nrainapur Rural Municipality Chairman Ishtiyaq Ahmad Shah said that the situation in the health treatment sector was not as difficult as it used to be. However, the lack of necessary equipment and specialist doctors prevented them from providing the desired level of treatment. He said that they had repeatedly demanded proper health equipment and specialists from the concerned authorities.