A civic worker fumigating a park in a bid to kill mosquitos, in Bengaluru on Saturday. To ensure better administration and effective management of health services in Bengaluru, the State Health Department is discussing the feasibility of taking over all BBMP-run secondary and tertiary care health facilities in the city.
| Photo Credit: PTI
To ensure better administration and effective management of health services in Bengaluru, the State Health Department is discussing the feasibility of taking over all BBMP-run secondary and tertiary care health facilities in the city.
Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao said the BBMP had submitted a proposal to the department stating that the civic body would run and manage all primary healthcare facilities, including Namma Clinics and referral maternity hospitals (which it is already doing), and hand over all secondary and tertiary care facilities to the department.
The BBMP has constructed new health facilities in K.R. Puram, Govindarajanagar, Yeshwantpur, and some other wards. They only have buildings and equipment but are unable to manage and run them due to lack of manpower, the Minister said.
“By doing so, there will be a clear demarcation of responsibilities between the civic body and the Health Department. This will also avoid duplication and overlapping of functioning while ensuring better services to people. It will also ensure better coordination among officials,” he said.
Stating that discussions on the proposal have begun, the Minister said more meetings would be held to deliberate on the feasibility. “We will also discuss this with the Deputy Chief Minister, who also holds the Bengaluru Development and Town Planning portfolios and is in charge of Bengaluru Urban District,” the Minister said.
Harsh Gupta, Principal Secretary (Health and Family Welfare), said there was a need for clarity in managing health services in the city. “While facilities in core BBMP areas are run and managed by the civic body, those in the new wards are managed with grants from the zilla panchayats and the Health Department. We are discussing the feasibility and are agreeable to anything that is beneficial to the public at large,” he said, adding that more rounds of meetings will be held soon.