Health in Rural Areas

Our country Nepal has its own network of health centres and hospitals. However, there is a lot to be done in this field. The numbers of doctors, nurses and health workers is too small to serve the growing population. According to the survey carried in 2003 AD, for every 5,870 people we have one doctors. In some areas, there are health posts, health centres, hospitals but no medicine. Some rural areas have medicine but buildings for healthpost, health centre and hospital. Some other areas neither have healthpost, health centre, hospital nor medicine. But the government still appoints doctors to those sreas. Even if there are healthposts, health centres,hospitals, medicine and doctors, there are very less equipment and rooms. In such areas, most of the people live in poverty, illiteracy and ignorance. These villages are inaccessible as well. The villagers cannot afford medical fee. Once doctors reach the villages, they donot have means of communication like telephone, fax and e-mail and internet. Salary provided to them is not sufficient to fulfill their needs. Therefore, it is obvious that doctors do not want to go to rural areas. On the other hand, the traditional pratice of treatment by witch -doctors like'dhami' and 'jhakri' still prevails especially in the villages. If there is a cut in hands or legs, people cover the wound with clay or cow dung. They do not know that the use of cow dung is the cut may cause tetanus.