Sudhakar warns against separating Health, Med Ed during vaccination

Sudhakar was the minister for health and medical education, a single command, before CM B S Yediyurappa reshuffled portfolios and broke it up as two ministries

Karnataka Health Minister K Sudhakar, who is sulking after being divested of the medical education portfolio, warned Friday that separating the two departments could impair the state’s Covid-19 vaccination effort.

It was in October 2020 that Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa appointed Sudhakar as the minister for health and medical education, creating a single command.

On Thursday, however, Yediyurappa effected a major change in the portfolios and gave medical education to senior minister JC Madhuswamy.

“Who will be in charge of vaccination now? It’s difficult for me to answer this question. I’ll talk to the CM,” Sudhakar told reporters.

“We’re in the process of Covid vaccination. Some 60-70 per cent district hospitals come under medical education and some others are under the health department. It’d help if the two departments are under a single command,” he said.

Sudhakar pointed out that there were “coordination issues” before he was made the minister for both health and medical education. “There were coordination issues due to the lack of a single command. In the entire country, health and medical education are together. It was not so here due to political reasons, but the CM had fixed it. I don’t know what he has in mind,” he said.

According to Sudhakar, the second wave of the Covid-19 will come. “It’s late in India. It’s not that it won’t come. Given this and the ongoing vaccination, the two departments need to work together so that citizens get the vaccine. There shouldn't be any administrative flaws. This is my only concern,” he said.

He said he had urged Yediyurappa to appoint one person in charge of both health and medical education. “I’m not sticking to any portfolio. But if health and medical education departments don’t cooperate or coordinate, it’ll be very difficult...humanly impossible,” he said.

Apparently, Yediyurappa did not talk to Sudhakar about the change in portfolios. “It’s the CM’s domain to decide on portfolios. I can’t tell what he should’ve done.”