Udupi admn. asked to run Koosamma Hospital, says Deputy Commissioner

Deputy Commissioner G. Jagadeesha said on Monday that the State government will run the Koosamma Shambhu Shetty Memorial Haji Abdulla Mother and Child Hospital when BRS Health and Research Institute (BRSHRI, belonging to NRI businessman B.R. Shetty) hands it over to the former.

Mr. Jagadeesha told The Hindu that a decision on BRSHRI handing over the hospital to the government would be taken in a week. BRSHRI had already written to the Chief Secretary stating that it was not possible for it to run the hospital. “The government has asked us to run the hospital,” he said.

The government had directed the district administration to appoint doctors to Koosamma Hospital. Accordingly, two gynaecologists and one paediatrician were appointed on Monday. The administration would depute another paediatrician and two anaesthesiologists from the District Government Hospital to Koosamma Hospital.

“We will take over Koosamma Hospital after recruitment of nurses and others is completed. We will not let it to be closed down. We will run Koosamma Hospital through User Fund,” Mr. Jagadeesha said.

The then Siddaramaiah government had, in August 2016, allowed BRSHRI to construct a 200-bed mother and child hospital, a 400-bed super-specialty hospital and an urban community health centre, under public-private partnership (PPP) mode.

These two hospitals and the health centre were to come up on the four acres of land in the heart of the city, where the 70-bed Government Maternity and Children’s Hospital was located. The Government Maternity and Children’s Hospital was razed and the 200-bed Koosamma Hospital was constructed and has been operational for the last three years.

But the 400-bed super-specialty hospital has still not been constructed. Kushal Shetty, General Manager, BRSHRI, said that Koosamma Hospital was constructed on the basis of an MoU signed by the government and the institute. Though three years had elapsed, the government had not signed an agreement for this and the construction of the super-specialty hospital had been stalled, he said.

The number of patients coming to Koosamma Hospital had increased due to COVID-19. Hence, BRSHRI had urged the government to appoint more doctors there, which the authorities are doing. “As of today we are running the hospital,” Mr. Kushal Shetty said.