Health Dept Principal Secy not coming to office for 8 months, no medicine supply: Karnataka BJP

Bengaluru, March 17 (IANS) The BJP on Tuesday alleged that the Health Department in Karnataka was in a poor state and attacked the government over the issue. Raising the issue in the Assembly on Tuesday, Opposition Leader R. Ashoka claimed that the Principle Secretary of the Health Department had not bothered to step into the office for eight months.

Speaking in the Assembly about the Health Department, R. Ashoka alleged: "The Health Department has fallen into poor health due to conflicts among senior officials. Because of this, no work is happening in the department. First, resolve the internal quarrels among officials and then improve the Health Department."

"The department's Principal Secretary Harsh Gupta has not come to the office for about 8 months. Is he working from home? Harsh Gupta himself prepares files and signs and sends them. That means a single-file process is happening here," Ashoka claimed.

"Harsh Gupta has written a letter to the Department of Administrative Reforms and Personnel Reforms. In that letter, he stated that lower-level officers in the Health Department are sending files without proper scrutiny, the Deputy Secretary-1 is not supervising, there is a need for comprehensive restructuring, and direct recruitment should be made to high-level posts," Ashoka stated.

"Later, the Secretariat Employees' Union wrote a letter against Harsh Gupta. In that letter, they said 'Harsh Gupta has arrogantly written beyond his scope, the letter should be withdrawn, using such insulting and condemnatory words to demoralise employees reflects his strange mindset, and this is not the trait of a capable officer.' This means there is conflict between the officer and the staff. How can the Health Department improve in this situation?" he questioned.

He said that people rely heavily on the Home, Revenue, and Health Departments and among these, the Health Department has become unhealthy.

"When I had spoken about the shortage of medicines in the previous Belagavi session, Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao had replied that tenders for medicine procurement would be called immediately.

"Recently, the Doctors' Association wrote a letter to the government. They have repeatedly brought the medicine shortage to the government's attention. The same association has also protested," he added.

"When there was discussion in the House about removing doctors from Community Health Centres and posting them elsewhere, the Medical Education Minister had replied that 'no doctors would be sent elsewhere'. Even after that, doctors were transferred elsewhere. Should we assume that the minister gave a false reply to the House?" Ashoka asked.

According to a study conducted by an organisation called PRS, the average spending on health in the country's budget is 6.2 per cent. Karnataka's share is 4.9 per cent. The Delhi government spends 14.5 per cent, and the Rajasthan government spends 8.4 per cent. Even though the state government claims it is allocating more money for health, the actual expenditure is low, he noted.

According to the government, medicines have been purchased and tenders have been issued. If so, how much money has been spent? How many medicines have been purchased? How much has been supplied? The government should clarify this, he demanded.

"Gynecologists from Community Health Centres met me and explained their problems. Doctors have been withdrawn from 228 Community Health Centres. Not only deliveries, but they also have to see other patients, treat children, implement central government schemes, and because of this, the number of deliveries has decreased, the doctors complained. Therefore, the government should withdraw this order," he demanded.

"I am raising the issue of unhealthiness of the health department. Mere slogans won't help the health ministry, the officers will have to get to the ground to perform. The health department is in discussion for all wrong reasons. The developments of series of death of new mothers, newborn babies dying due to IV liquids, shortage of medicines is making headlines everyday, shortage of ambulances, illegal sex determination centres are also discussed," Ashoka slammed.

"Senior MLA V. Sunil Kumar stated that doctors are complaining that they are being laid off from Primary Health Centres. Minister for Health Dinesh Gundu Rao clarified that no doctors have been laid off from the PHCs.

"In the whole department, due to internal fighting, no work is happening. According to information available, the Health department has skipped the purchase of medicines for one year. Can you imagine the situation if medicines are not purchased for a year," Ashoka claimed.

"A senior officer angered by the quarrel had kept the file related to purchase of medicines for three months. There needs to be a probe," he insisted.

"The compulsory number of medicines which needs to be in stock at PHCs is 534. Apart from these, the necessary 1,300 drugs are also needed. If you verify the stock, there is shortage of hundreds of medicines," he slammed.

--IANS

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