Dists asked to speed up identifying plots for setting up health facilities

KOLKATA: Taking a step ahead to further improve the health infrastructure in Bengal, the state government has directed all districts to expedite the process of identifying the land needed to set up health facilities utilising the grant of the 15th Finance Commission.

Sources said the discussion regarding the need to expedite the process of identifying the plots to set up the proposed infrastructure has come up in a video conference with all district magistrates headed by Chief Secretary HK Dwivedi and also attended by Health Secretary NS Nigam.

It is learnt that the 15th commission has granted Rs 4,402 crore for the next five financial years for development of health infrastructure in Bengal. The grant is Rs 2732.80 crore and Rs 1669.56 crore for rural and urban areas respectively.

Primary Health Centres (PHCs), Community Health Centres (CHCs), Block Level Public Health Units and conversion of Rural PHC and Sub Centres into health and Wellness Centres would be carried out in the rural parts of the state. The grant is also for further development of Urban Primary Health Centres (UPHC) and Urban Health and Wellness Centres in the urban parts of the state.

The allocation of the Finance Commission for both 2021-22 and 2022-23 fiscal is Rs 829.06 crore each. It would slightly increase to Rs 870.49 crore in 2023-24. For 2024-25 and 2025-26, the amount is Rs 914.02 crore and Rs 959.73 crore respectively.

This comes when the Bengal government's budget for the Health sector is Rs 16,368 crore in the current fiscal. It was only Rs 4,608 crore in the 2020-21 financial year.

It needs to be mentioned that the state has witnessed a massive development in the health infrastructure in the past 10 years.

Bengal has the highest number of critical care units in the country. There are around 25 medical colleges. Maximum number of beds in state-run hospitals is now oxygenated ones. The upgradation in health infrastructure carried out by the state government has helped in fighting the Covid pandemic.