Focus government attention on healthcare for the poor

Five newborns died in a fire at the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) in Adilabad, Telangana. An expert committee constituted thereafter has revealed a shocking lapse. The tragedy, it appears, occurred due to short-circuit in an air-conditioner and its causes included chewing of the wiring by rats. The report’s excerpts read as if the hospital was following a recipe for disaster. Poor maintenance, overcrowded wards, absence of proper fire alarms and panic reaction of the staff were highlighted. Thankfully, even amid the panic, the staff managed to save 27 other infants. The…

These steps are necessary and should have been taken long ago. The problem, though, is not that well-thought rules did not exist earlier. It is in their strict enforcement that the apparatus fails. RIMS is a major hospital established in 2008, and caters largely to the state’s poor rural and tribal region. But the issue of poor maintenance is a feature of most government hospitals beyond RIMS. The state government has made a budgetary allocation of over ₹13,000 crore for health, but how much of it is being used for upkeep of hospitals? Major institutions including the Gandhi and Osmania…