The staff, including senior doctors, house surgeons, paramedical and administrative staff and nurses of Government Chest Hospital, Erragadda, launched a struggle to protest the move to shift the hospital to Vikarabad.
The Telangana State Government on Tuesday issued a Government Order (G.O. R.T. No. 61) to shift the hospital to TB Sanatorium in Vikarabad. It also accorded administrative sanction of Rs. 7.70 crore to carry out repairs and renovation of sanatorium to house the new hospital.
According to the GO, the chief engineer of Telangana State Medical Services Infrastructure Development Corporation (TSMSIDC) has inspected the sanatorium in Vikarabad and had recommended repairs and renovation of the existing building. Earlier, the Government had directed the TSMSIDC officials to visit the TB facility at Vikarabad and submit a report on the possibility of shifting the existing Government TB and Chest Hospital, Erragadda to Vikarabad.
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The orders triggered protests with health care workers from the hospital boycotting their duties on Tuesday. Sporting black badges they raised slogans against the Government and termed the decision to shift the hospital as ‘illogical’ and against the interests of patients.
“How can they shift a teaching hospital that is attached to Osmania Medical College (OMC) to a place that is more than 50 k.m. away from the city? What happens to patients with respiratory ailments, including TB, who come from far flung areas such as Karnataka and even Maharashtra to the Chest Hospital? ” the protesting hospital staff asked.
Senior hospital doctors said that the TS Government has decided to shift Chest Hospital from its 62-acre campus in Erragadda. The doctors pointed out that if shifted, the hospital will stand to lose close to 11 PG seats in pulmonology, which received permissions recently from Medical Council of India (MCI). According to MCI rules, a teaching hospital should be within 8 k.m. of medical college.
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Facility for
HIV patients
“Instead of developing this facility into a full fledged general hospital, they want to shift to Vikarabad and use this campus for commercial gains. There is a 100-bedded facility for HIV patients here. The in-patient block is a heritage building and the campus is a notified urban forest area. Is the Government expecting patients to travel 50 to 100 kms for treatment?” said Dr. T. Pramod Kumar, chairman for action committee formed to save the Chest Hospital from its shift. Officially, the hospital has 670 sanctioned beds with nearly 300 health care workers that includes close to 50 doctors. Close to 200 HIV patients with TB co-infection visit the facility on a daily basis. Another 150 to 200 patients with respiratory ailments visit the outpatient wing of the hospital.
The Chest hospital has a chequered history. In 2008, the health officials had proposed to shift the hospital to Bandlaguda near Chandrayangutta triggering widespread protests from medical community. Recently, GHMC town planning department had deemed the heritage block unfit for occupation and directed the hospital not to put the structure to use.