Free service in govt hospitals has benefitted people from other states, nations: Mamata

Kolkata: The free service offered to patients in state-run hospitals has not only benefitted the residents of Bengal and those from the adjoining states, but also helped people from neighbouring countries, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said in the Assembly on Friday.

"There are many patients from Bihar and Jhargram and also from some neighbouring countries. They come to us as they get better treatment in the state-run hospitals and we cannot refuse them on humanitarian grounds," she said.

However, Banerjee noted that getting doctors for the state-run hospitals has become a major problem. "Because of Centre and MCI, students from other states come here for studies and the state government spends Rs 30 lakh on every medical student. But after becoming medical graduates, they go back to their native states and do not serve Bengal. It is a major issue and we are trying to address it," she added.

Coming down heavily on the Left Front legislators who demanded that number of beds in state-run hospitals should be increased, Banerjee said that during the 34 year Left Front rule, the hospitals had become "virtual hell."

In the past seven years, the hospitals have been upgraded and 28,000 beds have been added. "There is acute space crunch in the state-run hospitals so more beds cannot be accommodated. On humanitarian grounds patients cannot be refused. We will have to accept the ground reality," she said.

Banerjee said that the state government has to pay Rs 47,000 crore to clear the loan burden of the Left Front government. "Despite financial constraints we are giving free treatment to the patients of the state-run hospitals which is unique. Nowhere else in the country is medical treatment free in state-run hospitals."

Chandrima Bhattacharya, minister of state for Health, said of the 42 superspecialty hospitals, 39 are functional and work on three of them at Belda, Srirampur and Uluberia is underway. There are 17 state-run and private medical colleges in the state and approval for six more has been given.

The state government is considering the proposal to set up six more medical colleges in the state, taking the total number of medical colleges to 29 in future.

She said doctors, nurses, technicians, general duty assistants and facility management personnel have been recruited in the superspecialty hospitals.