BENGALURU: While major allocations continued to be made towards improving medical infrastructure, the healthcare budget announced by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday saw new allocations towards improving the quality of services at both the district and taluk levels in Karnataka.
Under the newly announced ‘Ashakirana’ programme, which is aimed at ensuring eye health of citizens, eye camps, distribution of spectacles, and surgical interventions for cataract will be carried out across districts in a phased manner, and Chitradurga, Raichur, Uttara Kannada and Mandya will be covered this year at a cost of Rs 21 crore.
The state has also taken measures to improve diagnosis and early intervention for tuberculosis among the weaker sections of society by organising community-based medical checkups. As a pilot study, Rs 20 lakh worth of two hand-held X-Ray machines will be provided to eight districts. Along with TB, anaemia and malnutrition continued to be a focus area for screening, treatment, awareness and capacity building of health workers, in controlling anaemia.
Meanwhile, Dr Sylvia Karpagam, public health doctor and researcher, said, “A health camp-based approach towards any disease whether sterilisation, TB or eye surgeries leads to fragmented care and loss of oversight and regulation. It also opens doors for private players to provide contractual services in a fragmented manner. Hence, the camp must be avoided and all essential services should be provided regularly.”
The newly announced health budget of Rs 14,950 crore, was Rs 200 crore lesser than what was allocated in the previous budget presented by the Basavaraj Bommai government.
Siddaramaiah said, “To further strengthen the quality of dialysis centres, ‘single-use dialysers’ will be introduced at all district and taluk-level hospitals, with an addition of 46 dialysis centres to be started.”
Under the efforts made to improve the state’s medical infrastructure, a 200-bed Mother and Child Hospital will be established in Gulbarga Institute of Medical Sciences, and Rs 450 crore has also been allocated for constructing 450-bed hospitals in Gadag, Koppal, Karwar and Kodagu on priority.
Additional facilities for the detection of cirrhosis and cancer in patients suffering from non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, was announced by Siddaramaiah. While most experts appreciated the announcements made towards improving the healthcare system, they said the public-private partnership model should be completely scrapped and the government must focus on ground-level implementation and auditing of these schemes.