The wake-up call before the coma

There is no doubt that the sarkari healthcare in Maharashtra needs a complete overhaul But who will bell the cat The executive or the bureaucracyIt should be a combined effort of politicians and bureaucrats especially the Indian Administrative Service officers right from the zilla parishad CEOs and district collectors to their supreme commander the chief secretary at the MantralayaThen comes the role of the expert hands in healthcare and their administration led by doctors who head the districts divisions and stateCollective failurePublic healthcare is handled by two arms of the governmentmdashthe public health department that runs various public hospitals across the state and the medical education department that runs hospitals attached to medical colleges So the role of the respective deans and hospital superintendents too becomes criticalSome civic bodies like Mumbai and Thane also operate hospitals and medical colleges A majority of Mumbairsquos patient load is handled by the civic healthcare The civic bodies are controlled by the urban development department The two departments public health and medical education work parallely creating a mess of their own Undoubtedly politicians must be taken to task for their lacklustre outlook and lsquowho caresrsquo approachThe departmental secretaries and the expert hierarchy must also be pinned for not taking their jobs seriously Successive disasters in the medical college hospitals and public hospitals have certainly shamed Maharashtra touted to be among the most developed and progressive states The tragic deaths in Nanded Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar and Nagpur contradict this claimWakeup call for CMThe deaths allegedly because of medicine and staff shortage have embarrassed Maharashtra More so when CM Eknath Shinde has been actively involved in healthcare through his family trust that helps needy patients Now the CM must have realised why his family wanted to run a foundation like this There would be no need for charities like his if the governmentrsquos own system was healthy enoughSuccessive CMOs have been running a special cell to provide medical assistance We wouldnrsquot need it if the governmentrsquos health infrastructure was stronger funded liberally and staffed sufficiently Over the years the politicians have been taking pride in organising mega healthcare camps It might win hearts and votes But the other sadder side of it is that it reveals the statersquos poor public health infrastructure the expert hands included because the doctors practising in private and corporate hospitals are roped in to treat patients in these camps Would we need such camps if the government healthcare was robust enough to take care of the people who canrsquot afford expensive treatmentScathing commentaryThe Bombay High Court has rightly told the government that responsibility cannot be shifted on the pretext that the growing number of patients and workload has made things difficult in the public hospitals It directed the public health medical education and drugs departments to submit details of vacancies and recruitment in the past six monthsIt has also demanded one yearrsquos details on the demand and supply of medicine and equipment in the Nanded and Chhatrapati Sambhaji Nagar hospitals The Court made a scathing commentary on the sorry state of public healthcare affairs telling the government that the plan if any to upgrade the healthcare system had remained only on paper because neither the implementation nor its outcome had been seenThe division bench of Chief Justice Devendra Kumar Upadhyaya and Justice Arif Doctor observed while dismissing the statersquos claim that the hospitals in question had taken the patients seriously and treated them well and that the medicine and equipment required were availableThe HC pinned the government down for insufficient budgetary support to public healthcare As per the statersquos submission the outlay for the year 202021 was 478 per cent of the total budget Next year it went up slightly to be 509 per cent For the current financial year it has reduced to 401 per cent60day challengeAlarmed by the deaths and harsh criticism the urban development department headed by CM Shinde has instructed the civic bodies in the state to create 1300 Arogyavardhini Centre in only 60 days The first batch of 400 is expected to be made operational in 30 days from October 7 The public health and medical education departments are yet to come out with their substantial plans It seems they donrsquot have time to spare from the brainstorming sessions that primarily focus on finding excuses and scapegoatsDharmendra Jore is political editor midday He tweets dharmendrajoreSend your feedback to mailbagmiddaycom