Patna, June 30: Bihar Health Minister Nishant Kumar has embarked on a drive to improve public health care and has now asked authorities to install CCTV cameras at all government hospitals in the state.
Nishant, son of former Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar, will be able to personally monitor every activity of doctors and staff once CCTV cameras are installed in all government healthcare institutions across the state. The minister noted that the aim is to increase transparency in hospitals and monitor the functioning of doctors and staff.
Phase-Wise Installation Plan
While speaking to the media, Nishant said Bihar has around 15,000 government healthcare institutions. Cameras will be installed at all of them in phases. A special software system is also being developed for this purpose.
He said that it would no longer be limited to tracking when doctors reached and left their hospitals but a complete record of their work in the healthcare institutions would also be maintained.
“If a doctor arrives at 9 am and stays until 1 pm, the system will record how many patients he examined during that period, whether they conducted OPD services, worked in the IPD, or performed surgeries,” he added.
Focus On Transparency
The Health Minister said the government’s objective was to ensure that medicines available in hospitals reached needy patients in the correct quantities.
The biggest challenge currently facing the health department is the issue of absentee doctors and staff. The new system is expected to help address this issue as well.
Hospital Upgradation Plan
He said that all district hospitals would be upgraded into super-specialty hospitals in phases. Likewise, all Community Health Centres (CHCs) will be developed into specialty hospitals, he added.
Nishant has been conducting regular inspection of hospitals in recent days. During an earlier visit to PMCH, he found the acting principal absent from duty. Following this, the government removed the official from the additional charge.
The Health Minister stated that negligence in government hospitals would no longer be tolerated under any circumstances. Providing better treatment and an improved healthcare system for patients is the government’s priority, he remarked.
