Bhopal News: State-Of-The-Art Institutes Fail To Deliver Tertiary Healthcare

Bhopal (Madhya Pradesh): Two state-level high-tech healthcare institutes sanctioned for tertiary care in Bhopal have fallen short of their expectations and are now limited to providing basic treatment.

In January 1985, following the December 1984 Bhopal Gas Tragedy, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) had set up the Bhopal Gas Disaster Research Centre (BGDRC) at Gandhi Medical College (GMC), Bhopal to study long term health effects of the disaster.

It was a state-of-the-art Pulmonary Function and Exercise Test laboratory to evaluate respiratory damage suffered by Bhopal gas tragedy survivors.

Similarly, the central government had proposed State Cancer Institute (SCI) for Bhopal, but later it was shifted to Jabalpur and was opened in NSCB Medical College campus. But here too, only basic treatment is being provided to cancer patients.

Bhopal Group for Information and Action(BGIA) Rachna Dhingra said, “ ICMR had  set up of super-speciality institute in GMC, Bhopal, but later on it was shifted to Jahangirabad as Government Rasool Ahmad Siddiqui Pulmonary Medicine Centre).

At present, it is run under the Gas Relief Department. High tech machines were also provided but they were not even installed and opened for the Gas Tragedy survivors.” Similarly, SCI, which was proposed for Bhopal, was shifted to Jabalpur and now only it is providing basic treatment instead of  tertiary health care, she further said.

FAIMA national executive Dr Akash Soni said, “State government failed to utilise these state-of-the-art institutes for tertiary health care and they are in pathetic conditions in the state.

Government Rasool Ahmad Siddiqui Pulmonary Medicine Centre) is currently run under Gas Relief Department and SCI is in Jabalpur medical college campus. Both the institutes failed to meet high expectations in the health sector.”