Hooda blasts BJP for Hry’s health services failure, reveals critical gaps

Chandigarh: Former Chief Minister and Leader of Opposition Bhupinder Singh Hooda has accused the BJP government in Haryana of putting the state’s health services on ventilator. He said, “Today there are neither medicines nor doctors in the hospitals.”

Hooda highlighted that around 20,000 posts are vacant in the health sector, with a shortage of 14,000 doctors in the state’s hospitals. “About 94 per cent of specialist doctors’ posts are lying vacant in villages. Due to lack of staff and facilities, the lives of thousands of patients are being played with every day,” he added. He also pointed out that patients are often forced to visit hospitals multiple times for lab tests or turn to private labs. “According to WHO guidelines, there should be one doctor for every 1,000 people, but in Haryana, there is one doctor for 2,035 people. There should be one bed for 200 people, but in the state, there is one bed for 2,086 people. Due to this, it is seen in many places that two or three patients are lying on one bed and deliveries are taking place on the floor,” he said.

Hooda also criticised the BJP’s promise from 2014 to establish medical colleges in every district, stating, “The reality is that in the last 10 years, not even a single new medical college announced by BJP has been completed and started. Only the institutions built during the Congress tenure are providing health services to the people.” He reminded that the Congress had established a health university and six medical colleges, including the first government medical college for women in the country. Hooda accused the BJP of cancelling the 10 national-level institutes approved by the Congress government, including Jhajjar AIIMS-2, which would have benefited the

state significantly.