A team of doctors from SCB Medical College and Hospital, the state’s premier government-run health unit, on Monday flew to far-flung Malkangiri district on the southernmost tip of Odisha to provide critical healthcare facilities as part of the air health service under the Mukhyamantri Vayu Swasthya Seva scheme.
The panel of doctors who travelled by air from Bhubaneswar’s Biju Patnaik International Airport to Malkangiri this morning began attending to the patients requiring laparoscopic surgery, besides nephrology and neurology treatment. The panel of doctors will provide treatment to about 250 patients during their four-day stay in the remote district, said an official of the state’s health and family welfare department.
The previous BJD government had launched Mukhyamantri Vayu Swasthya Seva in 2021 in an attempt to expand the free specialised healthcare facility to poor and backward people in the remotest corners of the state.
Shortage of an adequate number of doctors is a major area of concern in the state’s tribal-dominated districts, such as the Malkangiri, Nabarangpur, Nuapada, and Kalahandi districts. The doctors mostly shy away from serving in these remote locations, principally due to the abysmal lack of hospital infrastructure and diagnostic facilities.
The scheme, akin to an air ambulance service, envisages coming to the rescue of poor people in need of specialised treatment, which is conspicuous by its absence.