All beds in Bengal govt hospitals to be free

In a bid to make treatment of diseases affordable for the poor, all beds in government hospitals in West Bengal were being turned into free, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced today.
She said all government hospitals in the city, districts, sub-divisions and even primary health centres would have free beds as all paid beds were being converted into free ones.
"We will increase 12,000 beds in government hospitals," Banerjee, who also holds the health portfolio, said, adding that 5 government and 3 private hospitals were coming up.
At present around 40 lakh people in the state are dependant on government hospitals, she said, adding that they are targeting to construct 40 multi super-speciality hospitals by 2015 for which recruitment of staff was already on.

Banerjee said that there were already 86 fair price medicine shops in operation in the state offering as much as 70 per cent discount.
"We will also open another 50 fair price diagnostic centres," she said.

To tackle shortage of medical staff, the government has also decided to increase the retirement age of doctors in state ESI hospitals from 60 to 62 and those of medical teachers to 65.
Altogether 10,000 doctors and nurses would be appointed by the state government which is also welcoming retired nurses and doctors to come back to service.
To augment child healthcare infrastructure, the health department is making 17 mother and child hubs at a cost of Rs 20 crore each.

"They will be completed in the next two years," Banerjee said adding that they have increased the number of Sick Newborn Care Units (SNCU) to 50.