Mangaluru: In the wake of government hospitals facing acute shortage of ventilators in hospitals in the state, the Health Department will be installing 6 – 10 bed Intensive Care Units in the district hospitals and building 25 new taluk hospitals at a cost of Rs 22.37 crore, Health Minister UT Khader said.
Addressing a press meet at Circuit House on Tuesday, November 17, Khader said that the initiative of installing ventilators will first be focused on Bengaluru and Mangaluru. All taluk hospitals in the state will be inspected and machineries of out order will either be repaired or replaced so that all the beds in the hospitals are used, he informed.
Khader said that Indira Gandhi Children’s Hospital in Bengaluru will get a facelift at a cost of Rs 10.30 crore. Additional 19 beds will be installed in the hospital, thus increasing the number from 11 to 30. The work is likely to be completed by January. Though the hospital comes under the ambit of the Medical Education Department, the Health Department will be funding the establishment.
Speaking further, Khader said that the government will facilitate MRI, CT Scan and dialysis at much cheaper costs. He said that the facility will be introduced in 10 district hospitals in the state. In Dakshina Kannada, the facility will be introduced in Wenlock Hospital. The facility will be made available to outpatients and also APL card holders.
The initiative is sponsored by HLL and will work in a public-private-partnership model.
Khader informed that Rs 10 crore has been sanctioned for a new building in the Lady Goschen Hospital premises for a 60 bed hospital. As the MRPL funded building is still under construction, the new facility is consuming time, he said.
Tipu Jayanti
Speaking about Tipu Jayanti, he said that the celebration was held as there was a demand from people in Hyderabad-Karnataka border and other parts of the state and the government’s intention was to promote brotherhood.
He further added that there was no vote-bank politics involved behind the celebration. However, he said that the issue should have been streamlined before celebrating it in communally sensitive districts such as Dakshina Kannada and Udupi.
