Eighty-seven- year-old Gosha Hospital will be upgraded to a 250-bedded, hi-tech maternity hospital under the National Rural Health Mission scheme without changes in its existing heritage design. This was announced by Health Minister Aravind Limbavali here on Saturday.
The construction began on last April with a plan to have 150 beds in the hospital but with the visit of Limbavali and Principal Secretary of Health Department M Madan Gopal to the hospital on Saturday it took a new turn. It is decided to be upgraded to a 250-bedded hospital at an estimated cost of Rs 20 crore.
“Under NRHM, Rs 12 crore was granted for this hospital. Now we will upgrade it and extra funds will be sought. This decision coincides with the inaugural date of the hospital way back in 1925,” Limbavali said.
To have a check on corruption and help patients, a helpdesk will be set up in uncovered district hospitals coming under Health and Family Welfare Department. This will act as a liaison between the patient and the department, maintained Limbavali.
The minister also announced the Happy Drop Scheme under which pregnant women, post child delivery, will be dropped back home along with a child-care kit. For this purpose, 154 vehicles will be put on operation and tenders have been floated, he said. Local MLA Roshan Baig and Mental Health Task Force Chairman Ashok Pai were present.
Box 1 Principal Secretary Madan Gopal said that Hubli will be made an operation centre for the 104 scheme which is a round-the-clock Public Grievance Lodging and Monitoring System that permits citizens to lodge their grievances related to the health department. “We will have 300 stations in the state for this purpose and 100 will be opened by January. A few NGOs will be roped into maintaining the centres,” Gopal said.
The department has sent a letter to BSNL for registration of the numbers. Patients can SMS and mail their grievances over the hospitals, added Gopal.