The state government on Friday said it is planning a water ambulance service between the Gateway of India in south Mumbai and Alibaug in neighbouring Raigad district.
Replying to a debate in the Legislative Council on health-related issues raised by Shiv Sena’s Neelam Gorhe and others, Minister for Public Health Deepak Sawant said the water ambulance service has been started on trial basis in the Nar-Par river basin on Gujarat border. “The project can be replicated at Tapola Lake in Mahabaleshwar and Pranhita river bordering Andhra Pradesh,” he added.
On malnutrition cases, infant mortality and deaths of pregnant Adivasi women, Mr Sawant said issues like road construction, providing a nutritious diet to children and expectant mothers are related to departments like PWD and Tribal, Women and Child Development.
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He said, “(The role of) health department comes in late and (it) is (still) held accountable for deaths. In the mapping of medical equipment purchased by government in last 10 years, it has been found that nearly 15,000 such equipment were found to be inoperative,” he said.
Mr Sawant announced that the government will soon start biometric attendance for doctors and nurses in government hospitals. “Besides this, the government also intends to start a Referral Audit System for doctors in district hospitals so that they can be questioned on why cases were referred to private hospitals.”
He said the government is also thinking of expanding the scope of the Rajiv Gandhi Jeevandayee Arogya Yojana from October 2017 to include procedures like hip joint replacement, knee replacement, increasing stents to three from the current two, and snake bites. “The government also has plans to start specialised units like neurological care at district hospitals,” he added.
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Sawant said the government will recommend to the Centre that surrogacy laws be made stricter so that women are not allowed to opt for surrogacy methods, except in the case of cancer patients and inability to bear children. “It (surrogacy) should not be allowed for women who do not want to bear their second child and want to hire a surrogate womb,” he said. —PTI
The water ambulance service has been started on trial basis in the Nar-Par river basin on the Gujarat border