UTTARAKHAND’S INTERIOR HOSPITALS NEED ICUs AS WELL AS GOOD NUMBER OF DOCTORS TOO ! INITIATIVE OF BALUNI LAUDABLE

After the hue and cry on account of the most tragic and dreaded accident in the Naini Danda block of districtPauri Garhwal on 1st of July that claimed 48 precious lives of passengers travelling in an overloaded bus carrying more than double the capacity, the newly elected youthful journalist turned MP from Garhwal in the upper house Anil Baluni has come forward with a constructive proposal to establish intensive care units (ICUs’) in various interior hospitals of Pauri Garhwal district to start with, in order to provide timely, adequate and emergency medical treatment / resustication to the patients suffering from various critical illness like cardio vascular deseases as well as the accidental victims before shifting them to fully equipped bigger government hospitals at Dehradun or Delhi for further medical care leading to their survival.

The Rajya Sabha MP from Garhwal and the BJP’s national media incharge stationed at New Delgi Anil Baluni has offered adequate funds from his annual member of parliament’s lad fund allocated to every law maker from the union government’s financial coffers.

Baluni said : whether the fellow party MPs’ from Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha contribute in this regard or not but he will allocate his maximum MP lad fund from the present year’s financial quota to the quota of coming years to ensure that majority of the interior hospitals of Pauri Garhwal district are adequately equipped with the ICUs and ventilators to enable timely resustication to the critically ill patients who require immediate oxygen and functioning of lungs to survive at the time of critical situations when their heart goes sinking due to various cardilogical complications.

There had been hundreds of cases in the past that patients suffering from critical illnesses give up on the way while being carried to good hospitals in Dehradun or other cities of Uttarakhand including Delhi for want of critical respiratory care in the absense of not a single ICU in any of the district hospitals.

While the initiative of RS MP Anil Baluni and his intent to help the needy patients living in the interior villages is definitely highly appreciating and a welcome initiative but sounds bit impractical as the BJP currently has governments in both the Uttarakhand state as well as the centre.

There is, as such, no dearth of central financial assistence to the health sector of the himalayan state if the government led by prime minister Narendra Modi is really serious for the welfare and well being of the people of Uttarakhand. It can allocate a substantial fund from the centre of few crores to set up these ICUs’ and ventilators in majority of the Uttarakhand hospitals bereft of these facilities for the last 18 years.

Why is it that an MP of Rajya Sabha having a meagre budget has to singularly come forward with this healthy proposal and why not the state government, the union government and other 6 MPs’ not coming forward to do the needful in their respective parliamentary constituencies.

The majority of government hospitals in Uttarakhand, whether in the interiors of various district headquarters, are lacking high number of doctors as well as various medical aids and equipments like beds, ultrasound machines, X Ray equipments, medicines and doctors.

Several hospitals are running under the guidance of pharmacists in the interior villages which unambiguously speaks of the sorry state of affairs in the health sector of Uttarakhand. To prove home the point even the 250 bedded newly constructed private charitable hospital constructed by Hans Foundation at Satpuli with several hundred crores has merely three doctors despite its being the hi tec state of the art hospital.

It’s not that the successive governments have not been trying hard to ensure that doctors are stationed in the interior villages in good numbers but despite getting heavy perks our medical practitioners prefer to start their own private clinics or nursing homes to mint excessive money than to serve the poor masses in the interior or district hospitals of Uttarakhand.

Just take the case of Pauri district government hospital where during the undivided Uttar Pradesh there were 22 doctors of repute but today after the formation of separate Uttarakhand state there are hardly three doctors most of whom are on leave or absense.

The crux of the story is : the people of Uttarakhand do need ICUs and ventilators like life saving machines but the presence of adequate number of doctors is the first and foremost priority. In Uttarakhand one can find good number of private hospitals minting heavy profits, the reason being our government hospitals are badly and ill equipped having dearth of life saving equipments and doctors. However, despite all this, the initiative of Anil Baluni is highly appreciative and needs a standing ovation.