E-Paper
Akhilesh flays BJP overhealth services, releases Dr Kafeel Khan’s book
Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav said that the health services had deteriorated under the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh. All the hi-tech and costly machines in hospitals and medical colleges were not running. The companies had refused to service or repair them.
Lucknow: Samajwadi Party (SP) national president Akhilesh Yadav said on Saturday that health services had worsened under the BJP government.
Talking to newspersons at the party office after a book release event, Akhilesh said that all the hi-tech and costly machines in hospitals and medical colleges were not running. The companies had refused to service or repair them.
“Had the BJP government maintained the basic structure of the health services in the state, the patients’ lives wouldn’t have been in peril. The most strange and ironic is the fact that the BJP government’s Atal Bihari Vajpayee Medical University is being run from the 9th floor of the Ram Manohar Lohia Institute built during the SP regime. The BJP is not able to shape up the medical university announced in the name of Atal ji”, said Akhilesh.
He said that under the SP government, the people were getting treatment at government hospitals through a token of merely Re 1, and there was the arrangement for free treatment of serious illnesses of kidney, liver, heart, and cancer. Now, treatment costs had escalated and profits were being earned from poor people. He said that the 108 and 102 ambulance services were ruined by the BJP government.
He also said that during his government, health services were provided at the district level too. But under the BJP government, the district hospitals had collapsed. Had patients been treated at the district level, the beeline of patients to Lucknow could have been prevented.
Before Akhilesh Yadav addressed the media, he released the Hindi translation of Dr Kafeel Khan’s book ‘The Gorakhpur Hospital Tragedy: A doctor’s Memoir of a Deadly Medical Crisis’. Dr Kafeel Khan, who had also been the Samajwadi Party candidate in the local bodies’ elections early this year, said: “The story of the massacre that took place in Gorakhpur is in the book. I decided to have the book released by Akhilesh Yadav for he had visited Gorakhpur when the tragedy had happened”.
Akhilesh Yadav said that on the tragic story of that day (August 10, 2017) when many children died at BRD Medical College in Gorakhpur due to lack of oxygen, and the torture and jail that Dr Kafeel Khan had to suffer was in this book. Akhilesh said that he had visited Gorakhpur after the tragedy and had met several victims’ families. If the government had provided enough medical services and facilities, those deaths could have been prevented.
