Karnataka health minister K Sudhakar said the state has reserved 20% of beds in district and taluk hospitals and community health centres for children in view of a possible third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. This move comes in the wave of health officials warning that the upcoming wave could affect the kids below 18 years hard.
Health minister replying to a question in the legislative assembly said that the government has made detailed arrangements by augmenting medical equipment and human resources to handle the next wave. More than 25,870 beds with oxygen and 502 paediatric ventilators are already kept ready.
“Besides this, 285 paediatricians, 1,250 doctors and 1,202 nurses have been trained to effectively tackle a third wave. We will also appoint 85 more paediatricians soon,” Sudhakar said.
He said the government has given orders for more medical equipments that will probably arrive in the coming two or three weeks.
Issues pertaining to dialysis centres in the government hospitals managed by the BR Shetty foundation will be resolved within a month, health minister Sudhakar said. This foundation has been functioning 57 dialysis centres in government hospitals allover the state on a PPP model. But when BR Shetty went bankrupt, financial issues came up and affected the centres’ functioning and patients have been affected, he added.
Several MLAs in the assembly, raised the issue and urged the government to address it on priority. Speaker Vishweshwara Hegde Kageri said that it’s a noble scheme implemented to help the poor patients and requested the state to make sure they run efficiently. Members have also claimed that staff at these centres have not been paid for the last six months.
Sudhakar said the government is aware of these problems and is making alternative arrangements. “We are making arrangements to pay salaries directly,” he said.
