Bring patients' photo and get salary, Koraput MHU staff told

Koraput: In order to ensure visit of mobile health units (MHU) to remote areas to treat villagers, the Koraput district administration has made it mandatory for their staff to produce photographs of the patients they attended to.

Otherwise, salary of the MHU staff will be withheld, officials said.

The step was taken as, in most cases, it was seen that after visiting roadside villages, MHU staff skipped interior areas for which people residing there were deprived of healthcare.

"The MHU staff have been asked to bring photographs in cell phones of the villagers they visited and patients they treated. We hope by this healthcare problems in interior and inaccessible pockets of the district could be addressed to some extent," Koraput Collector Jaya Kumar V said.

At present, the district has 14 MHUs for as many blocks. Each MHU consists of an AYUSH doctor, a pharmacist, an attendant and a driver.

Apart from treating patients in remote areas, the MHUs create awareness and take preventive measures against various diseases.

Additional district medical officer (Koraput) Anand Kumar Padhi said earlier there were 25 MHUs in the district but after the introduction of the Rashtriya Swasthya Karyakram, 11 were diverted.

"Every day the MHUs undertake visit to different villages located in inaccessible areas of the district", Padhi said.