Hospital to be named after Haji Abdulla

Mangalore Today News Network

Udupi, Oct 31,2016: K.R. Ramesh Kumar, Minister of Health and Family Welfare, on Sunday announced that the State government had decided to name the district government hospital after philanthropist the late Haji Abdulla, who had donated land for the district government hospital and the district government maternity and children’s hospital, six decades ago.

The district maternity and children’s hospital is a part of the district government hospital. However, while the district government hospital is located at Ajjarkad, the district government maternity and children’s hospital was located some distance away on the Kavi Muddana Road here.

He was speaking as the chief guest at laying the foundation stone for the new building of the Government Koosamma Shambhu Shetty Haji Abdulla Memorial Maternity and Children’s Hospital, here.

Mr. Kumar said that the order naming the district government hospital after Haji Abdulla would be issued in the next two days. The government was not privatising the district maternity hospital but only upgrading it from 70 beds to 200 beds with better facilities.

Though the hospital would be run by the BRS Health and Research Institute Pvt. Ltd., owned by NRI businessman B.R. Shetty, its full control will be with the district administration. This was not privatisation.

Some organisations and individuals were deliberately misleading the people. Those who were protesting against this project should take some time off and visit the Lady Goschen and Wenlock Hospitals in Mangaluru. Both the hospitals were in a poor condition.

The Health Department had set up a committee under the retired High Court Chief judge, Vikramajit Sen, to study the functioning of private hospitals and suggest measures to regulate them so that the interest of the general public was protected. The committee has been asked to submit its report in eight weeks, he said.

There were 53 medical colleges in the State, which churned out 5,000 doctors annually. The posts of 1,083 specialists were vacant in the State and they did not want to work even though the government was ready to pay Rs. 1 lakh per month as salary. But none of them wanted to serve in the rural areas. The public-private partnership should be seen in this background.

The government would increase the bed strength of the Lady Goschen and Wenlock Hospitals from 270 to 500. It intended to provide intensive care units and dialysis centres in taluk government hospitals, Mr. Kumar said.

Pramod Madhwaraj, Minister of State for Fisheries and Youth Services; Pratapchandra Shetty, and Ivan D’Souza, MLCs, and Gopal Poojary, and Abhaychandra Jain, MLAs, were present.

Courtesy: The Hindu