While the State Government has put healthcare system on “top priority” under the Mo Sarkar initiative, Chief Minister’s Secretary and 5T Secretary V Karthikeyan Pandian along with Finance Secretary Ashok Kumar Meena and Health and Family Welfare Secretary Shalini Pandit made a whirlwind tour of Malkangiri, Koraput and Nabarangpur districts on Wednesday and reviewed cleanliness and infrastructure facilities for healthcare.
They too took spot decisions required for betterment of the healthcare sector and sorted out various issues needing financial decisions.
Pandian directly talked to patients during his visit to the three districts.
While talking to the patients, he enquired about availability of “free medical healthcare” being provided by the State Government under the Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana (BSKY) programme.
The mandarins’ team expressed happiness over cleanliness in the Malkangiri District Headquarters Hospital (DHH).
However, they advised management of the Saheed Laxman Nayak Medical College at Koraput to take care of cleanliness. Here, they decided to upgrade the hospital to a 500-bedded one to cater to the growing demand of the patients.
They also visited the Nabarangpur DHH and reviewed healthcare facilities and infrastructures there.
District Collector Ajit Kumar Mishra, SP Nitin Kusalkar and other senior officials were present.
They assured all sorts of financial support for providing cleanliness and better healthcare facilities.
However, Mediapersons here expressed strong resentments as they were not informed about what transpired at the meeting.
“Every day, thousands of poor patients are left at the mercy of private practitioners and clinics and fall prey to their exploitation. Poor people are dying because of lack of healthcare facilities,” alleged District Union of Journalists president Susant Kumar Behera.