Status of Health-care Services in Balurghat Municipal Area of Dakshin Dinajpur District, West Bengal

Indian economy has been one of the fastest growing economies in the world for some time, side by side aspirations and standards of living are rising. Therefore, the current state of urban service delivery is simply unacceptable. Floods and water-logging, traffic jams, pollution, accumulated waste at roadsides, poor health services and people queuing up for drinking water from street stand posts and tankers across cities and towns—all these distressed scenarios drive home the urgent need to address the challenges of delivering urban services in India. In Balurghat town, the status of health-care services was not satisfactory even only few years back. Both the government and private sectors were lacking in this field. Patients were frequently referred to the outside medical colleges. Though now the situations are slightly changed especially after the upgradation of Balurghat District Hospital to a Super Speciality Hospital by the Government of West Bengal few years ago. Still the health-care system of the town is lacking far behind from the satisfactory mark. Hence, proper attention should be taken both by the public and private sectors to invest in this much need basic service for the common people of the town and its hinterland.