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Healthcare-less

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Public Health

The sole 50-bed burns ward in the state at Victoria Hospital is in a pathetic state. Broken window panes, improper ventilation, fading walls, broken bathroom doors and shortage of sufficient cubicles for the privacy of the patients, are the other ills dogging the ward. The hospital authorities blame the PWD for the sorry state of affairs.

Dr T G Tilak, Medical Superintendent, Victoria Hospital, says “Whenever repair and maintenance work I ask the Public Works Department (PWD) to do on a priority basis, they never pay heed. Despite several pleas either for maintenance or for setting up cubicles for the patients, no action has been taken.”

Tilak adds: “While works at the hospital are not given much attention, lucrative contracts and projects are taken up expeditiously by PWD.”  When contacted, the PWD authorities said that they have sent a proposal to the higher-ups. “As soon as we get funds, we will take up the works at the burns ward,” they added.

For the full story, click on:
http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=Public+Works+Dept+ignores+Victoria%E2%80%99s+burns+ward&artid=C4dIZvOi3js=&SectionID=7GUA38txp3s=&MainSectionID=fyV9T2jIa4A=&SectionName=zkvyRoWGpmWSxZV2TGM5XQ==&SEO=                              

The (dis) services provided by the government hospitals are becoming increasingly costly, in terms of negligence, apathy, mamools (no longer small as the term may imply), fresh infections due to unhygienic conditions, and not in the least life itself on account of all of the above and many other factors. It is time the government re-looked at its role. The answer perhaps lies at  http://health-careless.blogspot.com/

And, as for the PWD, we can no longer afford to have our public buildings built and maintained by this den of corruption. Check http://praja.in/blog/murali772/2008/01/24/mediation-required. It's best wound up straightaway.  

Muralidhar Rao

Comments

narayan82's picture

A shame...

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This is one of the parts of the country I really ashamed off. The quality of basic healthcare provided to a poor, or anyone who cannot afford private hospitals is pathetic.

We dont have to offer free five star treatment, but basic amenities such as cleanliness, half decent service and corruption in hospitals has to be a complete NO! NO!

Look at UK. One can argue that they are smaller etc etc, but what a great system to have in place. NHS I feel is a great working model. I am not sure if our budget, GDP whatever, will allow us to have such a system here but surely we deserve something a lot better.

Even conditions outside Bowring Hospital are a complete mess. I am not sure how a Emergency Vehicle can plough through any of those streets. Or how the stagnaged water outise will kill its own germs!

One way to solve this is to privatise. Maybe if we consolidated the efforts of all the NGOs working in healthcare, and they came to gether with the govt to start ONE hospital (instead of each running a small facility) we might have a much better deal.

The other option is to setup a private monitoring body that does not allow room for corruption in such vital areas. Basic Healthcare to me is as if not more important as infrastructure.

Narayan Gopalan
User Interaction Designer
Bangalore
murali772's picture

14 govt hospitals ordered to close

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14 govt hospitals ordered to close - In Trouble For Not Setting Up Waste-Treatment Plant

The high court’s Lok Adalat on Friday ordered closure of 14 of the 17 government hospitals in the city, including Bowring Hospital (Shivajinagar), KC General Hospital (Malleswaram), Minto Hospital (Chamarajpet), Kidwai Institute (Hosur Road) and Vani Vilas Hospital (K R Road). The court ordered closure by December 17, on grounds of not setting up a biomedical waste-treatment plant.

For the full story, click on:

http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=VE9JQkcvMjAwOC8xMi8wNiNBcjAwMjAy&Mode=HTML&Locale=english-skin-custom

There are plenty of reasons already. Here's more.

Muralidhar Rao

Muralidhar Rao
murali772's picture

More of the pathetic story

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No power back-up, no ventilators, no pulse oxymeter, no suction apparatus, no ECG machines, no incubators and so on. The ‘No’ list of basic medical infrastructure at the city’s Bowring and Lady Curzon hospital is endless. For more, click on:

http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=Lack+of+basic+medical+facilities+at+Bowring+hospitals&artid=SpfEm6HRQqs=&SectionID=Qz/kHVp9tEs=&MainSectionID=wIcBMLGbUJI=&SectionName=UOaHCPTTmuP3XGzZRCAUTQ==&SEO=

Muralidhar Rao

Muralidhar Rao
murali772's picture

Gujarat now our model state for quality healthcare also

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"To ensure proper functioning of the hospital, many of the medical surgeons will visit Gujarat for a better understanding of the health care service that most of our hospitals lack". According to the medical officials in the Health and Family Welfare Department, Gujarat is considered better than Karnataka in terms of quality health care and treatment initiatives.

For the full story, click on:

http://www.expressbuzz.com/edition/story.aspx?Title=No+cure+in+sight+for+K+C+General+Hospital&artid=L6/QsWQAwas=&SectionID=Qz/kHVp9tEs=&MainSectionID=wIcBMLGbUJI=&SectionName=UOaHCPTTmuP3XGzZRCAUTQ==&SEO=

The situation today is the real pits in our government hospitals. Any effort can only improve matters. As such, while this move may be welcome, I don't think these are permanent solutions, since the very basics are not being addressed. And therefore the improvements, if at all, are likely to be short-lived.

The ultimate remedy lies in the government re-defining its role from a service provider to a facilitator and regulator, like for all other services also.

Muralidhar Rao

Muralidhar Rao
murali772's picture

rackets galore

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The three government hospitals - Vani Vilas, Victoria and Bowring, are being charged an unconscionable Rs 25 to 35 lakhs each a month by the BWSSB, going by today's press reports - check  http://epaper.timesofindia.com/Repository/ml.asp?Ref=VE9JQkcvMjAwOS8wMS8yMSNBcjAwNTAx&Mode=HTML&Locale=english-skin-custom.

On a comparison, a similar sized (125 apartment, approx 400 bed) complex like where I reside pays less than Rs 1 lakh a month, even when sourcing through tankers when necessary.

Essentially, a government organisation is there for everyone to loot.

Muralidhar Rao

Muralidhar Rao
murali772's picture

As simple as that?

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Victoria Hospital and Bowring Hospital have heaved a sigh of relief after the Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board (BWSSB) replaced some 40-year-old water supply pipes. It has helped the two hospitals save 17.83 lakh as water bill. In 2009, during a hearing of the High Court Lok Adalat, the superintendents of both the hospitals had admitted that they were paying more than 75 lakh as water charges.

The water board has submitted the action report before the High Court Lok Adalat stating that after replacing rusted pipes of Victoria Hospital, the bill amount reduced to 25 lakh per month from 36.8 lakh per month. This has saved them 11.8 lakh per month. The old pipes were causing leakage and raising the bills for the hospitals, BWSSB said.

For the full report in the New Indian Express, click here

Would you believe that it was just a matter of replacing old pipes? That's the cover. It may have helped to some extent also. But, there's got to be a lot more to the story, and not just confined to the water supply angle.



 

Muralidhar Rao
sanjayv's picture

Something is fishy

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 If the pipe supplying water to the premises was leaking, then the meter would not register it.  If the pipe within the hospitals are leaking, that is not really the domain of the BWSSB.  So how did the bill come down.  What did the BWSSB actually replace?  Not clear form the story.

idontspam's picture

 What did the BWSSB actually

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 What did the BWSSB actually replace?

They may have replaced accounting figures from one govt sponsored org to another during a rainy day. Now maybe they are replacing it back another rainy day.

Naveen's picture

Unclear

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Not clear to me either - how will changing pipelines reduce meter readings ? Unless they are talking about pipelines after the meters !

murali772's picture

requires lot more than that

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It's time for staff in government hospitals to pull their socks up. Medical education minister S A Ramdas on Tuesday said the government would set up complaint boxes at these hospitals to bring the inefficient and corrupt staff to book.

For the full report in the ToI, click here

It'll take a lot more than that, Mr Minister. Are you upto it, in the first place? If not, why don't you hand them over to organisations who can, and you just confine yourselves to regulating their activities?
 

Muralidhar Rao
murali772's picture

governments' capacity to manage hospitals repeatedly in question

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This (70 children died in BRD Medical College Hospital in Gorakhpur in the span of two days) happened because of one reason — utter mismanagement, a hallmark of government-run services in India. 
 
- - - A better direction for the government would be to improve India’s medical insurance, and be less involved in running hospitals. - - - it is the running of the hospitals — cleanliness, supplies, logistics and payments where the government falters. Get out of that. Insure more people. Give them a good coverage plan. - - -  And let more private players run the hospitals.
 
- - - A new comprehensive medical insurance scheme (and it doesn’t have to be free) that offers Indian’s good medical coverage across the private and public health network may work better than the government running thousands of large hospitals. If there can be Obamacare, why not Modicare?
 
For the full text (emphasis added by me) of the column by Chetan Bhagat, in the SToI, click here
 
Very simply, do what you had promised in your election campaign - less government, more governance
 
This applies much to Karnataka as to UP (or most other states), as seen from the earlier posts.
 
Muralidhar Rao

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