Listing out all the announcements made for Kalaburagi in the State Budget 2023-24 presented by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday, Medical Education Minister Sharan Prakash Patil has said that his government has given a bumper gift to the district by meeting almost all the expectations in the budget.
Addressing a media conference at the Congress office in the city, he said that allocating ₹5,000 crore for Kalyana Karnataka Region Development Board (KKRDB) is a major contribution of the Congress government that will help not just Kalaburagi but the entire region to move steadily on the path of development.
“The announcement to establish a 200-bed Mother and Child Hospital at the Gulbarga Institute of Medical Sciences (GIMS) in Kalaburagi at a cost of ₹70 crore, allocating ₹30 crore to operationalise the Trauma Care Centers (TCC) in Kalaburagi and Mysuru, earmarking ₹20 crore for the upgradation of the Peripheral Cancer Centres of Kidwai Memorial Institute of Oncology in Kalaburagi and Mysuru, giving ₹155 crore for establishing super-speciality hospitals and burns care centres in Kalaburagi, Mysuru and Belagavi will all help improve medical infrastructure in Kalaburagi and other places, while offering quality healthcare services free or at affordable cost to the poor people in the region,” Dr. Patil said.
“The previous BJP government did nothing to improve the medical infrastructure in the State. When we were in power, we envisioned opening a super-speciality hospital in each revenue division. The previous BJP government did nothing to take forward the projects. Now, we are going to establish them in Kalaburagi, Mysuru and Belagavi for facilitating the poor and disadvantaged people to get superior quality treatment free or at affordable cost,” Dr. Patil said.
He added that three floors being built in the new building of GIMS teaching hospital in Kalaburagi will be dedicated for the establishment of the super-speciality hospital.
When asked about the problems being faced at the GIMS teaching hospital in Kalaburagi, the Minister said that the hospital is overburdened as it is seeing double the patient capacity.
“The GIMS hospital in Kalaburagi is handling double the patient capacity. That is why we are establishing specialised hospitals with dedicated staff and infrastructure so that the burden on GIMS can be reduced. We are addressing these issues as part of our commitment to offering quality healthcare services to poor and marginalised sections of society free and the host of projects sanctioned to Kalaburagi are testimony to our commitment,” Dr. Patil said.
Criticising the previous BJP government for neglecting the expansion of medical infrastructure, Dr. Patil said that no health and medical infrastructure project initiated by him as Medical Education Minister in the previous Congress government has been taken forward by the BJP government.
“In 2017, we planned to open a super-speciality hospital in each revenue division for offering superior quality treatment free to the poor and marginalised sections. But, the BJP government did nothing to take it forward. Now, we are going to open these hospitals in three places – Kalaburagi, Belagavi and Mysuru. I had inaugurated Trauma Care Centre in Kalaburagi. But, the BJP government did not operationalise it. Now, we have allocated funds to operationalise it. We had decided to open a government medical college and hospital in every district and materialised it to some extent by opening them in a few places. The BJP did not add anything to the initiative. Now, we are going to resume the halted initiative,” he said.
