Taluk hospitals, community health centres will provide 24/7 services: Minister

Availability of obstetricians, anaesthetists, pediatricians and physicians at these facilities is being made compulsory, says Dinesh Gundu Rao

Belagavi: Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao said Thursday the government wants taluk hospitals and community health centres (CHC) to work round the clock for which the availability of obstetricians, anaesthetists, pediatricians and physicians is being made compulsory.

Rao was replying to a question by Kushtagi BJP MLA Doddanagouda H Patil on the availability of staff at his constituency’s taluk hospital, in the Legislative Assembly.

“We want all taluk hospitals to provide 24/7 services,” Rao said. “In many places, there’s one obstetrician, one anaesthetist and one pediatrician. They don’t work after 4 pm,” he said.

“We will now have two obstetricians, two anaesthetists, two pediatricians, one radiologist and one physician compulsorily. Maternal deaths happen because of lack of services. If people know that doctors are available in taluk hospitals, they won’t go to district hospitals, which get overleaded,” Rao said.

Karkala BJP MLA V Sunil Kumar asked Rao to explain a note issued by the Health Secretary on moving specialists from CHCs where there are less than 30 deliveries. “This criterion may cause a problem,” he said.

Rao said the government wants even CHCs to provide 24/7 services. “At CHCs where performance is low, if we move out one gynaecologist, we’ll have two MBBS doctors and a physician as well,” he said, adding that currently, CHCs stop working after 4 pm.

The Minister lamented that government doctors draw a salary of Rs 2 lakh to Rs 3 lakh with little work for them to do. “They do three to five deliveries a month. It’s zero sometimes. They take our salary, but practice privately. What’s the point? If you’re happy with just having a doctor in your village, then fine. But we want people to find doctors and medicines at any time of the day. Otherwise, they’ll go to private hospitals,” he said.

Vacancies

Around 1,500 MBBS doctors are being hired against vacancies under the compulsory medical service requirement, Rao said. “We wanted to do the same with 800-900 postgraduate doctors, but they went to court. The case is in the final stage,” he said.

Rao said workload mapping was being done to deploy 600 nurses, 400 lab technicians and 400 pharmacists who would be taken on contract.

“An order has been issued to recruit 223 doctors. It will be given to the Karnataka Examinations Authority in January, and the process will be completed in April-May,” Rao said.