This activist's queries exposed lies of 24x7 public health centers.

The Times of India: Ahmedabad: Friday, April 13, 2012.

Nadiad: Four years ago the state government had declared a chunk of public health centers (PHCs) across small towns and talukas to be open 24x7. This was done so that poor women who come for deliveries late in the night are given prompt medical care. The step was also aimed at handling emergency trauma cases. But doctors who were supposed be present at these medical centers manipulated their attendance and even lied on records about attending emergency cases.

It took an RTI application of Michael Mackwan in January last year to reveal the farce behind the 24x7 committed healthcare facility in Nadiad district. Mackwan demanded the attendance list of 90 doctors in 48 PHCs across eight talukas of Nadiad district and found that a majority of the 39 doctors who were employed in the special 24x7 PHCs were commuting between Ahmedabad. Mackwan's RTI revealed that only 17 doctors lived within the campus or in the close vicinity of the PHC.

"The government had mandated that doctors should live within eight km of the PHCs. These doctors were also claiming house rent allowance (HRA) from the government," says Mackwan.

"The health department had also required that 24x7 PHCs refer emergency cases like complicated deliveries of pregnant women and even trauma victims to the civil hospital. In RTI replies, each of the 17 PHCs which were 24x7 said that it had been referring complicated cases to the Nadiad civil hospital. In a separate RTI query, the civil hospital replied that not a single complicated case was referred to it by the 17 PHCs since inception. The doctors had been lying on records," says Mackwan.

Once the truth was out, the district development officer (DDO) Manisha Chnadra had enough proof to deduct house rent allowance (HRA) of seven errant doctors and even institute periodic inspection of the doctors employed at various PHCs."The moment the DDO started cutting the HRA in June last year, other doctors started attending their duties. I had demanded a similar inspection across all talukas of the state and that errant doctors be booked," says Mackwan.