Health services in State-run hospitals appalling

Mulugu/Mahabubabad: Healthcare services in the State have reached their nadir, Congress Legislature party (CLP) Leader Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka has said. Vikramaraka, who inspected the Area hospital in Mulugu on Tuesday, accused the State government of grossly neglecting the healthcare services in the State, while speaking to media persons.

"Even though Mulugu has been made district headquarters, the government is yet to focus on medical facilities in the region. A district hospital should have at least a 250-bed hospital.

Although the authorities said that it is a 100-bed hospital, the store that supplies drugs to the hospital showed that it is a 50-bed facility," he said. This indicated that there was no coordination between the medical and health wing and the drug control department, he pointed out. Such incidents reflect that there was no governance in the State, he said.

Stating that the present hospital building was constructed in the regime of Congress, Vikramarka alleged that the TRS government had not allocated even a single rupee. The Congress had set up an intensive care unit in the hospital but in last six years TRS government failed to procure the equipment, he said.

"There are 11 doctor posts vacant as against the sanctioned posts of 27 civil assistant surgeons. Both the Grade-II nursing superintendent posts are vacant. There are just five staff nurses in the hospital as against the sanctioned posts of 25," he said.

Mulugu MLA Seethakka accused the State government of making hollow promises. "It's not possible to hoodwink people all the times, the TRS leaders should understand. Even though the Mulugu is predominantly tribal populated district the government has no concern towards them, Seethakka said.

MLAs D Sridhar Babu, Podem Veeraiah and former Union Minister P Balram Naik were among others with Bhatti. Bhatti who later visited Mahabubabad equated the situation in the Area Hospital with the Second World War.

"Two or three patients sharing a single bed reminds me the Second World War. Those were the days the doctors used to treat three to four patients facilitating on one bed. But that was understandable as it was due to lack of facilities in those days," Vikramarka said.

The situation is really grim in the hospital, he said, referring to two children – one of six-year-old girls and the other one aged about eight years - in the paediatric ward. Even a man and a woman were accommodated on a single bed, he said.

"Is it the civilised world in which we are living," the CLP leader questioned the government. Is it the Bangaru Telangana? Is it the self- respect of Telangana which we wanted, he said, demanding an answer from the government.

It is really unfortunate that we have a Chief Minister like K Chandrasekhar Rao, the Congress leader said He said that the hospital does not even have basic facilities like ECG, X-ray unit, CT Scan, blood separator etc.

The hospital authorities say that despite repeated requests to the officials concerned there was no response to improve the facilities in the hospital, Vikramarka said.