Healthcare in the city got a fillip on Thursday when an Outpatient Department (OPD) was inaugurated in both Victoria Hospital and Vani Vilas Hospital. A clinical skills centre was also opened in Bangalore Medical College and Research Institute (BMCRI).
Inaugurated by the Minister for Medical Education S.A. Ramdas, the OPD department at Victoria Hospital was built at a cost of Rs. 10.45 crore while the one at Vani Vilas Hospital cost Rs. 2 crore.
The clinical skills centre — the first-of-its-kind in the State — enables students to simulate surgeries and enhance their clinical diagnostic skills. “After a visit to AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi), the State Government had decided to replicate the same facilities here and create a centre of excellence in the city,” said Mr. Ramdas.
Some of the initiatives undertaken by the State Government are: Rs. 250 crore (Rs. 150 crore from the State and the rest from the Centre) for the upgradation of government hospitals; integration of Victoria, Vani Vilas, Minto hospitals and BMCRI into one campus; increase of seats for super-speciality courses across the State; and setting up help desks in major hospitals.
“During the December session of the legislature, we will pass a Bill to set up a university for paramedical, allied health sciences and nursing colleges,” Mr. Ramdas said, and added that the Government was deliberating on a Bill to enforce reservations for beds in private hospitals.
BMCRI Dean and Director O.S. Siddappa sought more funds from the Government to improve infrastructural capabilities that have risen with the increase of seats in the institute from 140 to 206 in the last academic year for the postgraduate course, and from 150 to 250 for undergraduate seats in this academic year.
The list of proposals forwarded by the institute included a Central Research laboratory costing Rs. 29 crore (proposal sent to Centre for funding), Rs. 40 crore for an administrative block, classrooms and auditorium and a Rs. 20-crore project to build apartments and hostels for doctors, nurses and students at Rayan Circle, where the present hostels are situated. “We have also requested that the intake for postgraduate courses be further increased by 125 seats. We have also sent a letter to Medical Council of India for the introduction of five new postgraduate courses in the institute — Masters in Geriatrics, Medical Genetics, Nuclear Medicine, Rheumatology and Hospital Administration,” said Dr. Siddappa.
Demand of nurses
Under the aegis of the BMCRI Contract Nursing Staff Association, which claims to represent over 250 nursing staff in State-run hospitals attached to BMCRI, several nurses presented a letter to the Minister demanding the regularisation of their jobs. “For the past five years we have been working as nursing staffers and yet we receive only Rs. 7,000 as monthly salary,” said a nurse.
However, Dr. Siddappa said the jobs could not be regularised as the appointment on contract-basis was a rule for government-run hospitals.
