Agitations and complaints about corruption, human resource crunch and lack of quality care in public health institutes reigned high at a public hearing on urban health system on Thursday, in Bangalore.
Agitations and complaints about corruption, human resource crunch and lack of quality care in public health institutes reigned high at a public hearing on urban health system on Thursday, in Bangalore.
It was organised by Civic Bangalore.
One complainant put forth an instance when she was going through labour pains and approached a BBMP maternity home. She was asked to come back the next day, as they felt there was time to her delivery. Back home, she delivered a child within the next couple of hours!
“There was no one to help me. I was getting fits during the labour. And finally, after the ordeal, it was difficult for me to get a birth certificate for my child since it was not an institutional delivery. Now, whose fault is it?” she questioned the authorities present at the public hearing.
Among the dignitaries, Dr R Narayana, deputy director-nutrition and community monitoring, directorate of health and family welfare, Karnataka; YM Ramachandramurthy, deputy commissioner (health) BBMP; and Dr LT Gayathri, chief health officer, BBMP, were present.
Another complainant pointed out that during her labour the doctors at a PHC told her to undergo a C-section, and was referred to Vani Vilas Hospital.
“I stay in Kengeri and Vani Vilas Hospital is far off. In the ambulance, there was no nurse or paramedics. I was bleeding profusely, but there was no one to help. At the hospital also, it took long to fill up the registration and admission forms. And finally, I had a normal delivery. When there are hospitals in Kengeri, why do I need to travel so far for a deliver?” she fumed.
In a recent study by Ramachandra KV from Civic on four hospitals — New Bagalur Layout Health Centre, PHC at KR Puram, KR Puram General Hospital, and Maternity Home in Cox Town — by collecting information through RTI, some of the prominent problems observed were shortage of staff, ill-maintenance of the hospitals and corruption.
According to Kathyayini Chamaraj, executive trustee, Civic Bangalore, “All hospitals are supposed to provide their suo moto disclosure to public through RTI. When we approached four hospitals for our study, complete details were not provided.”
At the public hearing, both Ramachandramurthy and Dr Gayatri agreed that the helpline 1056, which is not active as of now, will be rectified. Also till then, people can lodge their complaints at 2266-0000, which is a 24-hour helpline.
“We were pointing out the generic issues. Arogya Raksha Samiti, for example, is defunct across Bangalore. There should be an internal monitoring system put in place by the state government. However, when the authorities were questioned about these, they simply blamed the doctors involved in each hospital,” said Chamaraj.
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