Monitor block, district hospitals, MPs told

Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Friday sought help from 500-odd parliamentarians to improve the medical facilities across the country. 

He urged them to oversee the functioning of block and district hospitals in their respective constituencies and give their feedback to the Centre on problems encountered there.

Replying to a question in the Lok Sabha, he advised MPs to hold meetings of the Rogi Kalyan Samiti (patient welfare committee), of which they are chairmen, and direct the authorities for better functioning of hospitals and implementation of government schemes.

“These committees work at the district level. If you are not participating in these committees, ask your district magistrate. Please go and be in touch with the district hospital, you will come to know about it. You please get involved in these committees,” the minister said.

The Health Ministry has already written to the state governments, asking them to constitute these committees immediately, he added.

As per the latest statistics, India has 19,817 government hospitals, out of which 15,398 are in rural and 4,419 in urban areas. Rajasthan, West Bengal, Assam, Bihar, Kerala, Odisha and Maharashtra have more than 1,000 government hospitals. 

There are also 1.5 lakh sub centres, 24,448 primary health centres and 5,187 community health centres.

Vardhan assured members that his ministry would soon write a formal letter to them too, requesting their participation in the patient welfare committees as RJD leader Jay Prakash Narayan Yadav asked for a copy of the letter that he had written to states.