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8 more ESI hospitals proposed in state

Last Updated 12 December 2009, 17:44 IST

 
At the 4th annual ESI Medical Conference here, he said an ESI hospital worth Rs 185 crore will also be set up at Peenya, along with acquiring a five acre land at the cost of Rs 25 crore to build a 100-bedded hospital in Bommasandra.

"A 500 bedded ESI hospital in Gulbarga will also be set up at a cost of about Rs 600 to 700 crore. This hospital will be second largest hospital in the country," he said. All the three hospitals will be part of the eight hospitals that will come up in the state.

Gowda also stressed on making the ESI dispensaries 24x7. "At present, even the health department can't operate 24x7 dispensaries. However, I will try to see that ESI hospitals operate 24 hours a day and seven days a week," he said.

ESI medical officers’ demands for a salary hike, filling up of vacant posts of doctors and upgradation of ESI hospitals came to the fore at the Conference, with the Karnataka Government ESI Medical Officers' Association (KGEMO) submitting a 13 point memorandum to Labour Minister B N Bache Gowda.

Dr Albert David, the Association's general secretary, said that the salary of doctors in CGHS, ESI Corporation, Union and state public undertakings and Directorate of Medical Education was much higher than what ESI doctors received.

He said of the sanctioned 547 Insurance Medical Officer's posts, 180 were vacant. In fact, they initiated contract basis appointment, only four doctors reported for duty.   The Association also highlighted how two machines in the dialysis unit at ESI Hospital, Indiranagar, were far from adequate.

The hospital received 100 dialysis patients and an equal number of kidney transplant patients and 200 chronic renal failure patients. The hospital received 20 nephrology patients every day. "At least five more dialysis machines and a CT scan unit in Radiology Department at this hospital," Dr David said.

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(Published 12 December 2009, 17:44 IST)

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