Minister proposes patients' kin shelter at hospitals

The State government plans to provide shelter for family members accompanying patients at district hospitals, but there is no clarity on who should pay to put this facility in place.

Health and Family Welfare Minister B Sreeramulu said he was undecided on whether the government should bear the cost, or use the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) grants, or get corporates, and nonprofits to fund it.

“Rarely does a patient gets admitted alone. A patient is always accompanied by a family member. Because our district hospitals do not have facilities for the family members to stay, they end up sleeping in the corridors. We want to build a shelter for them where they can sleep, and make food available for them late in the night,” Sreeramulu told reporters on Thursday, after formally inaugurating his Vidhana Soudha chamber.

Sreeramulu also said that dengue cases were on the rise in Bengaluru and Mysuru. “I have already issued directions for the officials to take the necessary measures,” he said.

‘I have to study KPME Act’

The Karnataka Private Medical Establishments (Amendment) Act, 2017, which was passed by the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government amid stiff resistance from medical practitioners, will have to be revisited, Health and Family Welfare Minister B Sreeramulu said.

“I’m aware of this law ever since I was the health minister 10 years ago. I am aware there are some loopholes, but I need to have a proper look at it,” he said, when asked how the KPME Act was being implemented. Amendments to the KPME Act, which the then health minister K R Ramesh Kumar anchored, were finally passed with some dilution after medical practitioners hit the streets against stringent provisions that were initially proposed.

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