Five newborns died in a fire at the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) in Adilabad, Telangana. An expert committee constituted thereafter has revealed a shocking lapse. The tragedy, it appears, occurred due to short-circuit in an air-conditioner and its causes included chewing of the wiring by rats. The report’s excerpts read as if the hospital was following a recipe for disaster. Poor maintenance, overcrowded wards, absence of proper fire alarms and panic reaction of the staff were highlighted. Thankfully, even amid the panic, the staff managed to save 27 other infants. The state government has since suspended three officials, released ₹11.1 crore for immediate repairs at RIMS and issued a slew of measures to prevent other tragedies. It has mandated fire audits in all government hospitals every six months and independent structural audits every year. It has also made hospital superintendents more accountable.
These steps are necessary and should have been taken long ago. The problem, though, is not that well-thought rules did not exist earlier. It is in their strict enforcement that the apparatus fails. RIMS is a major hospital established in 2008, and caters largely to the state’s poor rural and tribal region. But the issue of poor maintenance is a feature of most government hospitals beyond RIMS. The state government has made a budgetary allocation of over ₹13,000 crore for health, but how much of it is being used for upkeep of hospitals? Major institutions including the Gandhi and Osmania hospitals in Hyderabad regularly face shortage of essential medicines and equipment. In some cases, patients are asked to get X-rays and scans done from private establishments. On top of all this, there is the problem of doctors’ shortage. The government has recently begun recruitments, but a lot of vacancies need to be filled.
The ills mentioned above are just a tip of the iceberg. Government hospitals have been suffering from chronic shortages and poor maintenance for a long time. But given that the costs at private hospitals have skyrocketed in recent decades, it has become a bigger imperative for the government to focus on healthcare for the masses. It's heartening to note that new hospitals are being built. But the State's dedicated attention should be on providing healthcare to the poor and the middle class. These days, every family from these two sections of society is just one serious illness away from financial disaster.