BANGALORE: Though the casualty block of Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital was inaugurated by Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy a week ago, it is still not being used. The reason: The hospital does not yet have the equipment, including beds, or the staff required to run it.

The State Government has not yet purchased a single piece of equipment for the casualty block and neither has called for tenders for any equipment. When questioned by presspersons, Minister for Medical Education V.S. Acharya said that he would look into the matter after the Assembly session concluded. "I have given myself the entire month of July and most of August to focus on the needs of the hospitals," he said after inaugurating a new computer tomography scanner for the hospital's radiology department.

The casualty block had been built at a cost of Rs 9.8 crore. The four-floor building can accommodate 190 beds and is built on a total plinth area of nearly 5,380 sq metres.

Even the inauguration of the building was long pending. Almost seven months after work on the building had been completed it was still not inaugurated.

Hospital authorities at Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital said they had not initiated any demand for equipment because the building had still not been handed over to them.

"The BDA is yet to hand it over to us," said Rajeev Shetty, Medical Superintendent of the hospital. Mr. Shetty urged the Government to recruit doctors and nurses for the new block.

He said the hospital, which was already facing a shortage of doctors and nurses, would find it very difficult to operate the casualty block without new recruitments.

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