Bengaluru to have dedicated health authority: Bommai

Says 280 PHCs will be upgraded; Pitches for public health diploma
The 120 ambulances, which were added to the fleet of 108 Helpline vehicles, parked at Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru on Sunday | Nagaraja Gadekal
The 120 ambulances, which were added to the fleet of 108 Helpline vehicles, parked at Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru on Sunday | Nagaraja Gadekal

BENGALURU : There is regional imbalance as regards patient-to-bed ratio and patient-to-doctor ratio in some districts in the Kalyana Karnataka region and Uttara Kannada district, which will be addressed soon. Priority will be given to strengthening health infrastructure besides addressing issues like malnutrition among children, maternal and child mortality in Yadagir, Raichur and Kalaburagi districts, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said on Sunday. 

Speaking after launching 120 new ambulances with advanced life support at Vidhana Soudha, the CM said, “Bengaluru will get a single health authority as presently, some health centres are under the BBMP and others under the Health Department.” Bommai added that this year, 280 Primary Health Centres will be upgraded. He also pitched for a public health diploma to address related issues.

Karnataka has expanded its fleet of 710 ambulances under the Arogya Kavacha-108 service, with Sunday’s addition. Currently, there are 155 ambulances with advanced life support. The state has one ambulance per one lakh population and the government plans to increase this to one vehicle per 40,000-50,000 population. 

Health Minister Dr K Sudhakar said, “If technologies like GPS, mobile apps are adopted, then we can ensure that ambulances reach patients within 10-15 minutes. A tender has been called to map hospitals which will help us identify the nearest available hospitals and also bring in transparency. Now, it takes about 30-45 minutes for an ambulance to reach a patient in urban areas and more than 45 minutes in rural areas. We are working to bring down the turnaround time to 10-15 minutes by using technology and also increasing the number of ambulances.” 

Health Commissioner Thrilok Chandra told TNIE that this proposal is yet to be discussed and worked out. He also pointed out that way back in 2008, as many as 150 ambulances were launched under the 108 scheme and now the fleet strength has increased to 710 which will help in speedy delivery of services.
Meanwhile, the CM also inaugurated a new complex of government schools and colleges at Agrahara Dasarahalli. 

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