The Hindu : Tamil Nadu News : Construction of hospital buildings to begin this year

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Nov 27, 2006
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

Construction of hospital buildings to begin this year

Special Correspondent

Modern diagnostic equipment, medicines and doctors also promised

INSPECTION: Health Minister K.K.S.S.R. Ramachandran (third right) interact with a diabetic patient at the ESI Hospital in Coimbatore on Sunday. — Photo: S. Siva saravanan

COIMBATORE: The State Government has begun the process of providing new buildings to its hospitals, Health and Family Welfare Minister K.K.S.S.R. Ramachandran said on Sunday.

After inspecting the Employees' State Insurance (ESI) hospital here, he told mediapersons that buildings worth Rs. 200 crore would come up at various hospitals, whose needs were studied by a team of experts.

The team had recommended construction of buildings worth Rs.300 crore. Works for Rs.200 crore would begin this financial year. Ground floor would be constructed if sites were available on the hospital premises. If not, additional floors would be built. The plan was to replace old and weak buildings and provide additional blocks too.

The Government would also provide modern diagnostic equipment such as a 64 multi-slice heart scan equipment to the Government Hospital in Chennai and magnetic resonance imaging equipment to five other hospitals, including the Coimbatore Medical College and Hospital. Lithotripters, a machine to break kidney stones with shockwaves, would be provided to medical college hospitals.

Provision of good beds, quality bedspreads and other amenities was also part of the project.

The Government planned to turn district headquarters hospitals into teaching institutions for Diplomate of National Board, a course offered by the National Board of Examinations.

Recruitment process

Sanitation was hit in government hospitals what with the ban on recruitment. Now that the ban had been lifted, more conservancy workers would be hired. More doctors would be appointed soon. The services of those on contract had been regularised and their salaries doubled — from Rs.8, 000 to Rs.16,000. The imbalance in the availability of specialists would be corrected: for instance, a hospital had three orthopaedists but no gynaecologist or an anaesthetist.

Medicine shortage

The shortage of doctors in rural areas would be overcome. There was a strategy to take quality healthcare to the remotest village. There would be no shortage of medicines, as Rs.120 crore a year would be allocated for drugs. Sudden shortage in hospital pharmacies could be overcome by procuring medicines from the open market. The Government would provide funds for such emergencies.

During his inspection of the ESI Hospital, Mr. Ramachandran enquired with patients the quality of treatment and food.

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