BENGALURU: Health Minister K R Ramesh Kumar in October last year had set a deadline till February 2017 for a slew of decisions he had taken to beef up health infrastructure in the state. But all these promises have remained just that--promises.
At present, Bengaluru and Belagavi are the only districts with organ transplantation facilities. The minister had announced organ retrieval facilities in Hubballi, Mysuru, Kalaburagi, Mangaluru and Shivamogga. But there isn’t a single facility in any of these districts.
“Though medical colleges in these districts have infrastructure, we need to collaborate with the Medical Education Department to train surgeons. Also, once the State Organ and Tissue Transplant Organisation (SOTTO) is set up under the Jeeva Sarthakathe scheme, we will have the current transplant body Zonal Coordination Committee of Karnataka directly under the state,” said a Health Department official.
The next on the promise list was mortuaries in all PHCs in the state. And the figure, around 2,253. “Currently, only the proposal to sanction funds for 1,898 PHCs and 56 CHCs out of total 206 CHCs has gone to the government. It will be a 15X10 feet mortuary with a table each,” said another health department official.
Here is another promise: Cafetarias will be set up in 144 taluk hospitals, and district hospitals, where subsidised food would be given. This too turned out to be a paper promise. Nandini milk booths and HOPCOMS fruits outlets were part of the plan.
More promises followed. Like mohalla clinics in slums, suburban areas and labour colonies. With equipment provided by Biocon and Infosys, these would be equipped to perform at least 30 tests and initial diagnosis, he had said. Blood collection centres in taluk hospitals and blood banks with blood component division equipment in district hospitals were also promised. “Ten blood banks at district hospitals are under process. We need the requisite infrastructure, rooms and air-conditioning,” said a department official.
When Express contacted Ramesh Kumar, he said the projects are under various stages of completion. However, far from it, they are in various stages of tendering, or in some cases there has been no response to the tender or the process itself hasn’t been initiated.