‘Government hospitals being upgraded to prevent referrals’: Tamil Nadu Health Secretary Gagandeep Singh Bedi

Health Secretary Gagandeep Singh Bedi inspects the Government District Headquarters Hospital in Tirupattur town on Saturday. Tirupattur Collector D. Bhaskara Pandian and K. Marimuthu, Joint Director of Health Services (Tirupattur), are also seen. | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Health Secretary Gagandeep Singh Bedi said on Saturday that the Tamil Nadu government is making efforts to upgrade the existing facilities available at government hospitals and health centres in the State to prevent the referral of cases to bigger hospitals.

Accompanied by Collector D. Bhaskara Pandian and K. Marimuthu, Joint Director of Health Services (Tirupattur), Mr. Bedi said that with funds from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the State government has been implementing various infrastructure works in government hospitals and health centres to ensure the availability of necessary medical equipment and adequate space for additional buildings.

“Our aim is to make each hospital self- sufficient. In this regard, we have sought a list of facilities including medical equipment needed for upgradation from doctors in the hospitals in the State,” he said.

Elaborating on it further, the Health Secretary said that additional PHCs and sub-health centres are being built in the State. For example, in Tirupattur district, one Urban Primary Health Care Centre (UPHC) at a cost of ₹1.2 crore and 27 sub-health centres, which are manned by Village Health Nurses (VHNs), are under construction. Each new sub-health centre costs ₹30 lakh. Likewise, Special Newborn Care Units (SNCUS) under the National Health Mission (NHM) are also set up in government hospitals in the State, he said.

Mr. Bedi said that every year, the State government has been recruiting doctors to government hospitals and other health facilities through the Medical Services Recruitment Board (MRB). In this regard, the MRB has informed the State government that doctors for the next batch will be selected before the end of August. Efforts will be taken to fill up vacancies of doctors periodically. 

As the monitoring officer of the district, the Health Secretary inspected ongoing work at the Government District Headquarters Hospital in Tirupattur and primary health centres in Jolarpet town and Mandalavadi village near Tirupattur town.