Government responds positively to call for emergency care facilities in Kodagu, Uttara Kannada hospitals

BENGALURU: The hill districts of Uttara Kannada, Chikkamagaluru and Kodagu are ideal destinations for tourists. Over 50 lakh people visit these hill stations every year and the three districts collectively have a population of 30 lakh as per 2011 census. Despite this, hospitals in these places lack cardiac care, trauma centre, specialist doctors and neuro and orthopaedic surgeons to deal with medical emergencies.
“Patients from these districts need to travel at least 120km to reach a specialty hospital and eight out of 10 succumb on the way,”said Suresh Bhat, an IT professional from Sirsi and one of those who took the lead to start a campaign, #WeNeedEmergencyHospitalInUttarakannada. The drive later spread to Kodagu andChikkamagaluru.
The campaign which created a lot of buzz on social media, with Sandalwood actors, cricketers and professionals expressing solidarity and emphasising the need for full-fledged hospitals in these places, has drawn the attention of chief minister HD Kumaraswamy and the state health department. In a recent tweet, Kumaraswamy assured the people of these districts that he’d consider their plea.
Health commissioner Pankaj Kumar Pandey said the government will soon come out with a separate scheme to upgrade some major district hospitals, including Uttara Kannada and Kodagu, to ensure no patient has to travel more than an hour to avail emergency care.
“In Kodagu, the district hospital in Madikeri is the only major hospital. There are quite a few private nursing homes, but none has a cauterization laboratory or trauma centre to treat cardio related ailments or accident victims with head injuries. The nearest place for treatment is Mysuru,” said Naveen Somaiah, a BJP leader.
“Commuting to the plains from the hill district is very difficult for patients, especially the elderly. The ‘golden hour’ is lost because of the three-hour drive through the ghat section,” he added.
Worse, both government and private hospitals lack specialist doctors. The main reason for the posts remaining vacant is that no doctor is willing to take up an assignment in the hills, citing weather and distance.
Mysuru-Kodagu MP Pratap Simha said he will meet Jayadeva Hospital chief CN Manjunath to seek his help to set up a cardiac unit at the Madikeri district hospital and promised him Rs 5 crore in MPLAD funds for the facility.