Veerappan country hamlet has hospital but no doctor

BENGALURU: Development is an unknown quantity in Meenyam, in Chamarajanagar district. Nestled in the foothills of Male Mahadeshwara Hills that abut the Sathyamangalam reserve forest, which Veerappan once ruled, the hamlet was denied basic infrastructure because of the fear that the forest brigand inspired, especially after 1992, when he gunned down six police officers in an ambush near the village.
But the village still wallows in backwardness — its 800 families, mostly Soliga tribals, don’t have access to basic healthcare — even 15 years after police killed the bandit.

Bommappa, a local, gave two acres of his property to the government to build a hospital in Meenyam after he suffered a paralytic stroke a decade ago.
After the state established a primary health centre on the site in 2015, a doctor would show up once a week. This continued for a couple of years till the visits got more and more infrequent. As a result, women give birth at home without medical assistance and children don’t receive vital vaccinations.
The facility has basic facilities, including separate wards for men and women with a bed each, a minor OT, and a delivery room, but the beds and equipment are rusting with disuse. When TOI visited the centre, a male nurse was attending to patients. Up to 25 people visit the centre each day between 10am and 4pm, but they are usually just sent home with whatever tablets the facility stocks.
“I am a nurse and am not supposed to be giving medicine without direction from a doctor,” the nurse said. “And a doctor visits only once a week. This centre needs at least three nurses and a doctor. In the absence of these professionals, I just manage with the medicines we have.”
Shobha Mallesh, 20, a pregnant woman, came to the PHC with an acute cough and took home some antibiotics. “A doctor should check a severe cough if it occurs during pregnancy, but we only get medicines here,” her father Siddalinga said, vouching for the daily struggle people in Meenyam go through to get medical help. “I will take her to a hospital in Kudloor tomorrow morning, when the only bus that comes to this village next arrives.”
Meenyam is in the midst of a forested area, so there are regular cases of people falling from trees or being bitten by snakes. The centre has snake venom antiserum for snakebites, but there is no equipment to administer it. It does it have the equipment and expertise required to treat spinal injuries from falls.
“While administering snake venom antiserum, the patient must be stabilised with other medicines and IV fluid to make sure that the drug does not cause an adverse reaction,” the nurse said. “Without these medicines, administering the antiserum is dangerous, so I cannot do anything about cases of snakebite.”
Mallappa, a farmer from neighbouring Sulikobe village, rushed to the centre in November 2018 after he was bitten by a snake. With no treatment available at the centre, he had to be rushed to Kollegal, 105km away. “Snakebite cases are common in the village,” said Chinnamma, a resident. “We either get to another hospital, which has a doctor, in time or die.”
The only other PHC the people of Meenyam can go to is in Ramapura, 30km away.
Chamarajnagar district health officer Dr Ravi MC admits that a doctor visits the Meenyam PHC only once a week, and says at least three of the 60 PHCs in Chamarajnagar do not have doctors and Ayush doctors serve in 10 other PHCs. “We have posted a doctor to Meenyam from another PHC on temporary basis. We requested the senior officials to recruit doctors but received no response,” he said.