Following the furore over the death of infants in the children’s super specialty ward of SVR Ruia Government General Hospital here in the last two days, hospital authorities have prepared a “wish list” to enhance its infrastructure and meet the basic requirements.
The plan to establish an oxygen plant on the compound to meet the requirements of Ruia Hospital and also the adjoining Government Maternity Hospital and SVIMS Super Specialty Hospital has been hailed as a welcome step in overcoming the short supply of oxygen gas, billed as one of the major stumbling blocks in the hospital’s day-to-day administration.
The decision emerged when Minister Galla Arunakumari, Collector Solomon Arokiaraj and TTD Executive Officer L.V. Subrahmanyam huddled into a meeting on Thursday evening after the spate of deaths that rocked the hospital.
Funds from NRHM
The Collector announced to extend funds from the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) for establishing the plant, while British Oxygen Company, a regular supplier to the hospital, has reportedly been asked to come out with budget and other logistical requirements for the installation of the plant.
Other constraints staring at the hospital include drinking water problem and shortage of technical and ministerial staff. Ruling out the presence of ground water, the hospital is prepared to buy water from tankers by spending Rs.2 lakh a month.
More employees ‘soon’
The hospital also has to cough up close to Rs.1.75 crore per month towards the salaries of hundred nurses, fifty ward boys, twenty lab technicians and 25 security guards ‘to be employed soon’. And all that the hospital has with it is a paltry Rs.10 lakh in the form of Hospital Development Society Fund.
The administrators are preparing a detailed report, clearly indicating their budgetary requirements, to be presented to Chief Minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy during a meeting slated for the August 21. However, it requires due seriousness and commitment that go beyond ‘cosmetic’ steps to undo the damage caused to Ruia’s image.
