Critical care castaways of tri-State border  Premium

Government office employees in Palamaner, Andhra Pradesh, face healthcare challenges, highlighting the need for improved medical services in the region.

Employees in a government office of Palamaner mandal in Chittoor district of Andhra Pradesh quickly sprang into action after their 21-year-old colleague Latha (name changed) attempted suicide on a wintry morning in 2023. They rushed her to the government hospital in the district headquarters 45 kilometres away, praying they had not acted too late.

The next day, they learned that their prompt efforts fell short in making up for the travel time and the delayed critical healthcare Latha had received.

Despite undergoing treatment for half a day, she showed no signs of improvement. The hospital staff did not seem confident about her chances of survival. Still, a ward boy there suggested they shift her to a private hospital in Tirupati, 75 kilometres away.

Recollecting the harrowing experience, Latha’s brother, Harish, says: “We admitted my sister to a private hospital in Tirupati for two days and paid ₹70,000 worth of medical bills only to hear the doctors say that they did everything they could, but my sister showed no improvement.”

“We were in a state of despair when a senior professor at S.V. University suggested we immediately admit my sister to Christian Medical College (CMC) Hospital in Vellore, Tamil Nadu, which is, again, 110 kilometres away. There, luckily, she recovered, and it took her one and a half years to return to her normal life. We paid ₹3 lakh at CMC Hospital,” he says.

“But, while we endured this ordeal, our family lost confidence in our healthcare system and our hospitals—both private and government-run ones,” Harish concludes.

Despite the suffering, Latha is among the fortunate few in the Chittoor district, especially from the villages between Chittoor and Kuppam Assembly constituencies, who managed to survive despite such severe delay in administering critical healthcare.