Karnataka: Doctors seek transfers for selfish reasons, says KR Ramesh Kumar

Bengaluru: Health and Family Welfare Minister, K R Ramesh Kumar appealed to legislators on Wednesday not to write letters asking for transfer of doctors and other staff of government hospitals in the state.

Replying to Opposition leader, K.S. Eshwarappa in the Legislative Council, he said doctors and other medical staff usually seek transfers to safeguard their own interests and used their political connections to achieve this objective.

Urging the legislators to stop playing into their hands, the health minister hoped that they would pass a resolution against making such recommendations for doctor transfers in future.

The minister also announced that a decision had been taken to improve infrastructure in government hospitals to bring them on par with the facilities provided in private hospitals.

As part of this initiative, all taluk hospitals would get dialysis centres within three months. The management of these centres would be outsourced and the subsidy cost of treatment would be reimbursed to the companies concerned by the government.

Revealing that all taluk hospitals would also get Intensive Care Units (ICUs) within three months, Mr Ramesh Kumar said although legislators had been requested to provide Rs 15 lakh from their development funds and Members of Parliament, Rs 5 lakh from their funds for these units, there had been no response from them.

The minister added that free diagnostic centres would come up within a month in all government hospitals and as many as 215 generic medical shops set up across the state to provide the poor medicines at a price they could afford. He revealed that steps were being taken to improve all PHCs and taluk and district hospitals in the state.