Karnataka Cabinet failure to approve funds leaves Victoria nephro unit in limbo

The state cabinet has been stalling approval of Rs 8 crore funds to complete construction works for the 150-bed annex at the Institute of Nephro-Urology (INU) in the Victoria Hospital campus.

Once completed, the new building — constructed with the institute’s own funds — will nearly double its existing bed capacity, besides adding four operation theatres, a 12-bed ICU, a 30-bed dialysis unit, 20-bed emergency unit, and a full-fledged lab and OPD.

INU director Dr Keshavamurthy R said the current INU building is very old and has become overcrowded due to an influx of patients.

“It has only a 20-bed dialysis unit, which is not sufficient to meet the demand. In addition, the facility needs better equipped operating theaters for transplants,” Dr Keshavamurthy said.

The initial estimate for the annex was Rs 18.4 crore, and the foundation stone was laid in 2016. However, construction did not begin until 2018-19 and was stopped during the Covid-19 pandemic.

By that time, most of the construction work on the three-storey building had been completed, especially the first two floors. Currently, painting and plumbing work, as well as the fabrication of operating theaters and the setting up of an ICU and dialysis units are pending.

Dr Keshavamurthy explained that the cost estimates for the annex increased by another Rs 8 crore due to the two-to-three-year gap in construction caused by the pandemic. The additional estimate was approved at the institute’s governing council meeting in January 2022, but the government’s approval was needed for the revised estimates as per norms.

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai remains the council’s chairman, while Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar is its vice-chairman. Since no funds were needed from the government, approval of the finance department was swift. But the file needs Sudhakar’s signature, following which it would go to the cabinet for approval. This is yet to happen.

Since January, the INU governing council has made two requests to expedite the construction of the annex.

In its last meeting on November 18, the minutes of which are with DH, the council urged Medical Education Secretary Naveen Raj Singh to prepare a report on the revised estimates, discuss it with Sudhakar, and present it to the cabinet.

However, approval for the project is still pending, despite there having been cabinet meetings since the council’s request.

INU’s founder-director Dr G K Venkatesh, a current member of the governing council, said the delay is inconveniencing patients.

"INU is the centre of excellence for kidney diseases in the whole state. It gets patients from across South India, and it's important for them to get admissions when needed. Also, since this is a tertiary facility, we have a lot of procedures and the current operation theatres are insufficient."

In 2019, for example, the hospital had 1.12 lakh outpatients and 8,143 admissions.

DH was unable to reach Sudhakar and Singh for a response.