Not enough PHCs in Vadodara district, specialists missing too: MSU study

Vadodara: There is only one primary health care centre (PHCs) for every three villages of Vadodara district. Even today villagers suffering from health issues are forced to make their own travel arrangements to reach these PHCs which at times are located about 10 km away from their home.
This was revealed in a research paper presented by a teacher of M S University’s Faculty of Commerce. The paper was selected for the overall best research award at an international conference in Mumbai.
“I had randomly covered 25 villages in eight talukas of Vadodara district including Dabhoi, Shinor, Savli, Karjan, Vadodara rural, Padra, Waghodiya and Desar. Of these 25 villages, only nine had PHCs,” said Bhumit Shah, assistant professor at the Department of Banking and Insurance of MSU’s Faculty of Commerce.
Shah randomly selected 120 villagers (PHC users) as the sample size for the study. “Of these, around 40-odd respondents had PHC in their villages while the rest 80 have to travel 8-9 km just for availing basic healthcare facilities at the PHCs which were located in other villages,” said Shah.
“The PHC users in the study opined that there is a need for setting up medical facilities in all the villages. At the same time, there is a need for proper transportation as most of the users are finding it difficult to access the PHCs if they are not located within their village. In absence of transport, the villagers have to rely on private vehicles,” he said.
Even the PHCs are not fully equipped with adequate staff.
“Most of PHCs have gynaecologists, dentists and eye specialists but when it comes to other specialists they are simply missing. For instance, there are no dermatologists or orthopaedics at these PHCs even as villagers require services of such specialists,” he said, adding that service of eye specialists are also available only once or twice a week.
Shah carried out the empirical study on ‘measuring the perception for selected health care services provided by PHCs in selected villages of Vadodara district.’
Of the 165 research papers that were presented at the international conference, Shah’s paper bagged the overall best research award at the global entrepreneurship and management summit held in Mumbai last month.