In a relief to patients suffering from kidney related ailments, the Bihar government today announced that dialysis facilities will be made available at all government medical colleges and district hospitals from August 15.
All government medical colleges and district hospitals in Bihar will have dialysis facilities from August 15, state Water Resources Department (WRD) minister Vijay Kumar Chaudhary informed the legislative Assembly.
The facility was so far only available in select government hospitals in the state capital, he said.
Replying to a debate on the health department's demand for Rs 4,805 crore for the current fiscal, Chaudhary on behalf of health minister Ramdhani Singh, said the state government has also decided to launch a scheme called 'Aushdhara' under which all medical equipment would be centrally purchased to the meet requirements of medical colleges and hospitals.
Stating that improvement of health and medical infrastructure in Bihar was a continuous process, Chaudhary said doctors have been recruited and medicine and equipment provided to hospitals in the first-phase of reforms so that people of Bihar could get best medical facilities in their state.
"The results of ever-improving health facilities are there for all to see as neonatal mortality has come down to 43 per thousand live births against 61 in 2005, while the mother mortality rate too has declined at 219 per lakh," the WRD minister said.
On the outbreak of Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) in Bihar claiming lives of hundreds of children annually over the past four-five years, he regretted the factors causing the disease have not been identified as yet.
The only solace the state government could draw was that the mortality rate due to AES has been 17 per cent of those children taken ill in Bihar as against the national average of 30 per cent, he said.
Chaudhary said medical facilities in the government and private hospitals for treatment of AES patients were adequate, but lives could be saved only if the cause of the disease was found out by experts.
The Health Department's demand to meet expenditure for the current fiscal was passed by the House by a voice vote and a cut proposal of Rs 10 introduced by BJP MLA Vikram Kunwar was defeated amid a walk out by the BJP MLAs.
