The Chhattisgarh Government will soon start construction of a Super Specialty Hospital under Pradhan Mantri Swathya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) at Jagdalpur in Bastar district, officials informed.
Notably, Chhattisgarh is one of the newly formed states, formed in 2000 which had inherited a weak infrastructure base in both the physical and social sectors. It had genuine constraints like a weak health infrastructure and depleted human resources for healthcare, apart from many of its areas being affected by left Wing Extremism. All this combined to weak health indicators, officials stated.
Many of the basic determinants of health like water, sanitation, and overall healthcare supply were also weak. Although there were a lot of gaps in the state’s healthcare system, the political and administrative leadership of the state nevertheless identified health as one of the priorities right from the beginning and this path has resulted in many remarkable achievements.
There is a large presence of security forces in the Bastar region of the State, which is at the heart of the lWE problem. There are over 22,000 state police personnel in the 8 lWE affected districts of Bastar and the neighbouring district of Rajnandgaon.
In addition, there are almost 45,000 personnel belonging to the Central Armed Police Focres (CAPFs) such as the CRPF, BSF, ITBP & SSB. In view of the ongoing anti-lWE operations which are going on a continuing basis, there are daily occurrences of injuries to security personnel.
These can be both minor and major, often requiring immediate medical attention. In fact, in case of any complications, there is a necessity to transport the injured personnel to Raipur (which is over 300 kms away from most incidents) to provide medical care. Often, security personnel lose lives or limbs as a result of the delay in transit.
Keeping in view the limited medical facilities in Jagdalpur, which is the headquarters of Bastar Division, and the need to provide advanced and appropriate medical care in Jagdalpur itself, the Government of Chhattisgarh took a decision to develop a hospital a 100 Bed hospital in Jagdalpur, along with a Trauma Center, officials stated.
Development of such a 100 Bed facility in Jagdalpur will have multiple benefits. It will not only cater to the security forces’ requirements but also address the unmet healthcare needs of the local population living in these areas. The facility to be set up should be equipped to cater to all the secondary level healthcare requirements of the population in vicinity with a special focus on curative and rehabilitative treatments related to accidents and trauma cases like bullet injuries, splinter injuries and injuries due to explosions and blasts.
This state of art facility should also be equipped to cater to special needs of psychological and psychiatric care of personnel operating under stressed and challenging conditions.