Posts filed under ‘Health Services’
Odisha govt signs MoU with Vedanta for medical college in Kalahandi
Following is a report from the http://odishasuntimes.com :
Kalahandi: The Odisha government today signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Vedanta Group, a globally diversified natural resources company, to set up a 500-bedded medical college and hospital in Bhawanipatna in the district.
The tribal-dominated district had hit the headlines of national and international media and caused embarassement to the State government for its poor healthcare facilities after the Dana Majhi episode in August, 2016.
The MoU was signed in presence of Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik and State Health and Family Welfare Minister Pratap Jena.
Sonamali Bag, Director of Medical Education & Training (DMET) of the State government and Rahul Sharma, Director of Corporate Strategy at Vedanta, signed the agreement.
As per the agreement, total Rs 350 crore will be invested for setting up the proposed medical college, of which Vedanta will spend around Rs 100 crore.
While the State government will run the medical college and hospital, Vedanta will develop infrastructure support for it.
Official sources said as many as 100 MBBS seats will be available in the medical college.
The Chief Minister has directed the Family and Welfare Department to start the construction work of the proposed medical college soon and complete as early as possible.
Chief Secretary AP Padhi, Development Commissioner R Balkrishnan, MLAs of Kalahandi district among other officials were present.
Notably, in April last year, the CM had announced to set up new medical colleges at Koraput, Mayurbhanj, Puri, Bolangir, Balasore, Kalahandi and Keonjhar to tide over the shortage of doctors in the State.
Patnaik had laid the foundation stone of the medical college at Bhangabari in Bhawanipatna, the district headquarters town of Kalahandi, in November 2016.
Survey finds health care in trauma in Kalahandi and Balangir districts
Following is a report from the Telegraph
Bhubaneswar, Aug. 12: Another case of dengue death was today reported from the SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack, while swine flu has already claimed nine lives in the state this year.
When the state is facing multiple health issues, a Bhubaneswar-based organisation, the Centre for Youth and Social Development (CYSD), has conducted a survey on the issue and challenges of primary heath care facilities in the two most backward districts – Kalahanadi and Balangir. The survey reveals how people are still not getting basic health services, including ambulance services.
The study was conducted in Balangir and Patnagarth constituencies of Balangir district and Narla and Junagarh constituencies of Kalahanadi district. The infamous Daana Majhi case that was reported last year, where Daana had to carry the body of his wife for nearly 12 kilometres after being unable to get the ambulance, was reported from Kalahandi district. In these four constituencies, a total of 37 primary health care centres have been selected by the organisation. The study covered primary health care centre, sub centres, villages and communities in these areas.
The expert team interviews 50 per cent of out patient department (OPD) patients visiting each PHC. The patients were selected on the basis of convenience and snowball sampling method. They were asked to share their satisfaction levels and experience at the primary health care centres. Total 370 patients (10 patients from each primary health care centres) were covered. Besides, the grassroots services providers – Accredited Social health Activists (Asha), auxiliary nurse midwives and anganwadi workers were interviewed on implementation of various government schemes.
They find unavailability of buildings as a major problem in imparting health care service to the patients. In absence of adequate and habitable staff quarters, it won’t be possible to put a check on doctor absenteeism and 24X7 primary health care centres won’t function smoothly. The primary health care centres need to be converted into 24X7 centres with in-patient department facilities.
Provision of safe drinking water and power back up (important in case of power failure during emergencies) are also major issues at the primary health care centres. The unavailability of diagnostic services and referral transport is causing a lot of difficulties for the people. While in some instances people are bound to pay higher prices in getting their medical condition resolved, in other cases, many are often showing lack of interest due to lack of money (thus, turning again to traditional healing methods or quacks).
The service providers also showed displeasure in many aspects. The doctors showed discontent regarding unavailability of staff quarters leading to daily commuting to the primary health care centres (few of them which are in remote areas).
Though medicines never run out of the stock and the quality of the medicine is good, the people don’t trust the quality of medicines as they think that government medicines are free and therefore, might be of poor quality. In many cases, doctors allegedly prescribe expensive medicines that patient parties have to buy from outside.
Asha and auxiliary nurse midwives are the health activists in the community who create awareness on health and its social determinants and mobilise the community towards local health planning and increase utilisaton and accountability of the existing health services. But these service providers face various issues at the ground level, such as communication problem, excessive field area and too much workload.
The survey report also alleges that the Asha workers are losing interest and motivation to carry out their regular duties as they are not getting incentives at the right time. Some of them also remained absent on the MAMATA Divas which is held on the second Friday of every month. Due to this continuous absenteeism, the beneficiaries have started losing trust on Asha workers.
Another major issue is lack of ambulance facilities and the people depend on their own bikes and bicycle, to reach to hospitals. Lack of ambulance facilities often turn out to be fatal for pregnant women. The status of 102 and 108 ambulance services is in highly deteriorated condition and people have been grossly disappointed.
CYSD co-founder Jagadananad said: “The study is an attempt to understand the nuances of the primary health care services provided at the grassroots and to gather the perceptions of the community regarding the services like access to health, infrastructure, human resources.”
Delivery in auto-rickshaw
A woman of Sunakhandi Tikarpada village in Kalyansighpur block of Rayagada district delivered a baby in an auto-rickshaw on her way to the hospital on Saturday. Her family members alleged that though they called the 102 ambulance service to rush her to Kalyansinghpur Community Health Centre after she complained of labour pain, the ambulance did not turn up.
Naveen seeks release of funds for five medical colleges from Centre
Following is a report from the Sambad:
Separate hospital for Balangir medical college
Following is a report from the TNIE:
BHUBANESWAR: The State Government has decided to build separate hospitals for the new medical colleges at Balasore, Balangir and Puri. The hi-tech hospitals are likely to be ready within next six months.
While construction of buildings for the medical colleges is underway, it was earlier decided that the existing district headquarters hospitals (DHHs) will be upgraded as per the norms of Medical Council of India (MCI).
The Centre had approved establishment of five Government medical colleges and hospitals at Balasore, Koraput, Balangir, Baripada and Puri in 2014. It was announced that all five medical colleges would have student intake capacity of 100 each and around `200 crore would be spent for upgradation of the DHHs to a full-fledged medical college and hospital in each district.
While existing DHHs at Koraput and Baripada are being upgraded as per the MCI norms, it is not feasible to upgrade the hospitals of rest three districts, sources said.
Health Secretary Arti Ahuja said at a high-level meeting chaired by the Chief Secretary, it was decided that separate hospitals will be constructed for the medical colleges at Balasore, Puri and Balangir.
“The Works Department will prepare the estimate for these new hospitals on and without turn-key basis. The estimate for equipment, instruments and furniture (EIF) will be prepared separately,” she said.Though it has not been decided whether the construction work will be done on turn-key basis, the Works Department has been asked to submit the estimate on turn-key basis and also separate estimates for civil work and EIF by September 30.
Since the Government is willing to start admission in these new medical colleges next year, ideally the infrastructure should be ready by March next. The admission can only be possible after a team from MCI gives its nod following infrastructure inspection.
While Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik had laid the foundation stone for the medical college at Balasore on October 28, 2014, the same at Puri and Balangir was done on July 4 and August 30 last year. The Government has also created posts for these medical institutions.
Dana Majhi effect: Medical college site earmarked
Collector (Kalahandi) Brundha D said it is a suitable place for the hospital as it is well-connected. The land belongs to directorate of animal husbandry and veterinary services. “We will inform the state government to make a final call,” the collector said. Following Dana Majhi issue, the state government announced to set up a government medical college here and subsequently it had asked the district administration to find a 25-acre land near Bhawanipatna.
Sub-collector Sukanta Tripathy (Bhawanipatna sub-division) said a place was required for the setting up of the medical college within five-km radius of the town and the patch fulfils the criterion.
Odisha’s healthcare in shambles; helpless patient’s plea for medical care goes unheard in Sundargarh
Following is a report from http://odishasuntimes.com:
In a heart wrenching incident that should put Odisha Government’s tall claims on healthcare facilities to shame, a helpless old man was today spotted by local reporters lying on the veranda of Sundargarh district headquarters hospital awaiting medical care since past eight days.
The frail looking man – identified as Pawan Bodra — is suffering from diarrhoea. He admitted himself in the hospital on August 31 seeking medical attention. However, without a family member or caretaker to attend to his needs, all that he has been given by the hospital staff is a saline.
“I have been suffering from diarrhoea and came here for treatment. I can’t see a doctor around. I am lying here in hunger. No one has offered me any help,” said the Bodra fumbling, with his hands trembling out of weakness.
Even though the saline pipe was still connected to his body, his condition was pitiable as he laid there on the hard ground without any bedding, medicine or clean clothes.
The hospital authorities, however, claimed that the patient was mentally unstable even though we could make no such observation from our conversation with the patient.
“The patient has certain neurological deficits along with diarrhoea. He keeps coming out on his own no matter how we try to keep him in the ward. He doesn’t have an attendant with him. We are unable to keep an eye on him round the clock,” said Sundargarh CDMO Sashi Bhusan Nayak.
“We are not neglecting him. We are changing his clothes regularly. We have asked the Sulabh folks to clean his clothes,” he added.
Naveen announces medical college for Kalahandi
Following report is from http://www.telegraphindia.com:
Bhubaneswar, Aug. 30: The Odisha government will set up a medical college in Kalahandi with the help of the Vedanta Group that will extend infrastructure support of Rs 100 crore, chief minister Naveen Patnaik announced today.
The announcement, which followed a meeting between the chief minister and Vedanta chief Anil Agarwal here, came close on the heels of outrage over a tribal having to carry his wife’s body on his shoulders from a hospital in the district for 16km.
“The proposed medical college will be run by the government,” Patnaik said. A medical college will also ensure a mandatory 500-bed hospital.
Kalahandi, known for acute backwardness and poverty, does not have a medical college. The Sardar Rajas Medical College Hospital & Research Centre, set up by a private promoter in 2013, was shut down last year as the Medical Council of India withdrew recognition, citing lack of infrastructure.
“A medical college and hospital is needed in Kalahandi. We will provide infrastructure support worth Rs 100 crore,” Agarwal said.
The government will provide the required land and manage the medical college and the hospital.
Vedanta, which has been running a 1-million-tonne alumina refinery in Lanjigarh in the district, has been assured by the state government of raw material through the state-run Odisha Mining Corporation (OMC).
The refinery has been running only at 40 per cent of its capacity because of non-availability of bauxite ore. “We have been assured by the state government that we will be provided long-term raw material linkage through the OMC,” Agarwal said.
Steel and mines minister Prafulla Mallick said: “We will provide raw materials to the Vedanta from Kodingamali bauxite reserve in Koraput district.”
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Never ending saga of Sardar Rajas medical college students
Following is a report from the OTV:
Bhubaneswar: Students of Veer Surendra Sai Institute of Medical Sciences and Research (VIMSAR) in Burla and Maharaja Krushna Chandra Gajapati (MKCG) Medical College and Hospital in Berhampur moved Orissa High Court today opposing the re-allotment of Kalahandi-based Sardar Rajas medical college students in their respective institutions.
The students knocked the HC doors citing that their institutions are ill-equipped to accommodate the additional strength and an alternative arrangement should be made for the students of Sardar Rajas students who have been caught in an imbroglio.
They too sought the State government be a part of the matter in the legal proceedings.
Earlier Saturday, students of VIMSAR had staged a silent protest in front of the institution protesting against the HC order to re-allocate 45 medicos of Sardar Rajas Medical College in their college.
Two days later, students of MKCG Medical College and Hospital took to streets opposing the HC order. Besides, demanding proper counselling, the students of Hi-Tech Medical College and Hospital here had taken out a rally in Master Canteen area.
Balasore, Koraput and Balangir medical colleges get central nod
Following is a report from the TOI:
BHUBANESWAR: The Centre has given its nod for establishment of three medical colleges in the state during the 12th five year plan, health secretary Pradipta Mohapatra said here on Thursday.
The Centre would provide 75% funds for these colleges with the rest coming from the state coffers, he said, adding, the colleges will have 100 MBBS seats each.
Mohapatra said the new colleges would come up at Balasore, Koraput and Balangir at an initial investment of Rs 189 crore each. District headquarters hospitals in these places will be attached to these medical colleges, land for which will be provided by the state government within 10 km of the hospitals.
These proposed medical colleges are part of a central scheme, under which 58 colleges would be established across the country by 2017. Construction of these colleges would start soon after signing of MoUs with the Centre, he said.
Odisha had requested the Centre to grant four such colleges, including one at Baripada, a statement issued by the chief minister’s office said. CM Naveen Patnaik has expressed his anguish over the central government not considering the state proposal for medical college at Baripada.
“Considering that Mayurbhanj district is tribal dominated, the Centre should also consider the demand of converting Mayurbhanj district headquarters hospital at Baripada into a medical college along with the three others,” the CM was quoted as saying.
Odisha currently has nine medical colleges.
Kosal Discussion and Development Forum 