When bed has been a basic right for an admitted patient in a hospital, the irony is the Government hospitals in rural Odisha exactly found acutely wanting in this basic minimum necessity. And the shocker is Odisha tops the country in this dubious league. Sample the paradox: For a total of 1,659 rural hospitals, Odisha has only around 6,439 beds, which then work out to not even four beds ineach hospital. In contrast, the data with the Central Health Directorate shows that for a total of over 11,054 rural hospitals in the country, the total beds availabile stood at over 2.09 lakh that then boils down to around 19 beds per hospital. Even, a north-eastern State like Arunachal Pradesh has around 10 beds per rural hospital.
Moreover, the critical revelation is when hospitals in rural areas during the last 7-years have risen by around 50 in Odisha; the number of beds available has decreased by an eye-popping 29 per cent. The result: Average population served per Government hospital bed in Odisha has slipped to around 2,294 against 2,711 in 2009.
Significantly, how the State Government through its health policy is festering the yawning rural – urban divide in Odisha is evident from the fact that when for the over 3.8 crore rural population, the average beds per rural Government hospitals were around 4. In the contrary, for the 20 per cent urban populace, the average beds per urban Government hospitals in Odisha stood at a whopping 92.
This is so when around 70 per cent of the total 26 lakh admissions to hospitals in 2016-17 had been from rural areas. More stunning facts: As per NRHM data, Odisha has around 1,305 Primary Health Centres (PHCs) and only 2.8 per cent PHCs in Odisha has at least four beds, which is the worst in the country. Similarly, of 377 Community Health Centres (CHCs) in the State, only 16 per cent of CHCs have at least 30 beds, which is 3rd worst nationally after Arunachal and Manipur.
Post the panchayat poll jolt, realising the chinks in health infrastructure, the then Finance Minister Pradip Amat in 2017-18 Budget had announced the launching of a new scheme Mukhyamantri Swasthya Seva Mission on the lines of National Health Mission (NHM) and allocated Rs 760 crore for infrastructure development of health institutions (PHC and CHC). Significantly, expenditure by the State Government on health and family welfare during its long 17-year stint (2001-2017) has not been satisfactory as the total expenditures have been on average around 4 per cent per year of the annual aggregate expenditure for the period 2001 - 2017.
In fiscal year of 2017-18, the health and family welfare expenditure has been pegged at 5 per cent of total annual expenditure.