‘Undue haste’ in hospital inauguration questioned

November 20, 2017 12:34 am | Updated 12:34 am IST - UDUPI

Members of the Save District Government Maternity Hospital Committee staging a dharna at Bhujanga Park in Udupi on Sunday.

Members of the Save District Government Maternity Hospital Committee staging a dharna at Bhujanga Park in Udupi on Sunday.

Members of the Save District Government Maternity and Children’s Hospital staged a dharna in front of the Gandhi statue at Bhujanga Park questioning the “undue haste” in inaugurating the Koosamma Shambhu Shetty Memorial Haji Abdulla Maternity and Children’s Hospital here on Sunday.

The State government, had, in August, 2016, allowed the BRS Health and Research Institute, owned by B.R. Shetty, an NRI businessman, to construct a 200-bed maternity and children’s hospital, a 400-bed super-speciality hospital and an urban community health centre under PPP mode.

These two hospitals and the centre would come up on the four acres of land in the heart of the city, where the 70-bed Government Maternity and Children’s Hospital is located.

G. Rajashekar, writer, said that the four-acre land had been donated about a century ago for the Government Maternity Hospital by the philanthropist and founder of Corporation Bank late Haji Abdulla Saheb (1882-1935) to be used only for providing free medical treatment to the poor.

It was wrong on the part of the government to hand over the four acres land of public property to the corporate sector as it was now worth hundreds of crores of rupees. It was akin to selling family silver for a song. Henceforth, patients visiting the new hospital would be at the mercy of the corporate sector. This is an anti-democratic step, he said.

Idris Hoode, committee member, questioned the need for a new hospital when the District Government Maternity Hospital was functioning well. The government made a big show of being against private medical establishments by tabling amendments to the KPME Act, but it was promoting private medical sector on the sly, he said. If Mr. Shetty was so concerned, he could have developed the existing District Government Maternity Hospital. Instead, the whole intention was to build a 400-bed super-speciality hospital on a prime government land made available free, he said.

P.V. Bhandary, committee member, questioned the hurry to inaugurate the hospital when construction was not fully completed. Was it because the Model Code of Conduct would become effective in three months? How many medical and paramedical personnel had been appointed for the hospital? It was surprising the hospital should be inaugurated when the matter was in the courts, he said.

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