Thumbs-up to health infra boost in Maharashtra’s budget

The Maharashtra government’s budget announced on Monday primarily focused on improving the health infrastructure, especially in rural parts, to keep the state prepared to face any possible disease outbreak in the future

The Maharashtra government’s budget announced on Monday primarily focused on improving the health infrastructure, especially in rural parts, to keep the state prepared to face any possible disease outbreak in the future. The new proposals will add another 3,190 medical seats across colleges. Also, the overall budget allocation for health has been given a boost of 10.25% – ₹19,061 crore, compared to the 2020-21 budget estimates of ₹17,288 crore.

Thumbs-up to health infra boost in Maharashtra’s budget

As of March 8, over 22lakh people have contracted the Covid-19 infection in the state. As per doctors, the fight against the Sars-Cov-2, the virus that causes the novel coronavirus, is not over yet. Taking this into consideration, the state on Tuesday announced plans to build a post-Covid care centre—‘Post Covid Counselling and Treatment Centres’ in every district.

“Establishment of the post-Covid care centres across districts is the need-of the hour. Because like other flu and coronavirus, Covid-19 will remain in the air for years to come. So, in the long run, we have to be ready to treat recovered patients with complaints of Pulmonary Fibrosis, long Covid-19 syndrome, among others. Also, there is a need to focus on mental health issues among the recovered patients,” said Dr Ramesh Bharmal, dean of BYL Nair Hospital.

The state officials have decided to set up a ‘modern hospital’ for treatment of infectious diseases like swine flu, Covid-19, among others, on the premises of Aundh district hospital.

However, health activists have flagged it stating there is a need to establish such a specialised infectious hospital in all districts, especially in cities like Pune, Mumbai and Nagpur. “When the pandemic started in March last year, Kasturba Hospital, the only hospital to treat infectious patients, had only 150 beds for a population of 2crore. There is a need to strengthen the already existing infrastructure, rather than just adding to the number,” said Dr Abhijit More, attached with NGO— Jan Swasthya Abhiyan.

“The infrastructure should also focus on mental health issues, since post COVID patients do grapple with mental health issues. Large parts of rural India and Maharashtra are deprived of these facilities. In addition to this, the current expenditure will be a way ahead,” said Dr Rahul Pandit, Director-Critical Care, Fortis Hospitals, Mumbai and part of the Covid task force.

The state announced ₹7,500 crore for construction and upgrade of health infrastructure. “The proposal includes construction of district hospitals, psychiatric hospital, trauma centre, primary health centres and sub-centre, upgrading and construction of taluka level hospitals,” reads the budget speech. Along with that, the government has announced setting up of six new medical colleges in Sindhudurg, Osmanabad, Nashik, Raigad, Satara, Amravati and Parbhani. This will help add 3,190 medical seats across medical colleges. Of these, 1,990 will be undergraduate seats, 1,000 post-graduate seats and 200 for super-specialty.

Doctors from the state Covid task force have welcomed the move. Dr Pandit said, “This is a very strong commitment in building infrastructure, providing expertise and necessary facilities in rural areas.”

The state is further expanding its program for non-communicable diseases with 150 hospitals across the state to diagnose cancer, and eight CATH labs for emergency angiography procedures for heart patients.

Following the fire incident in a hospital in Bhandara in January that killed 10 babies, the state government also announced plans to install fire safety systems in all government hospitals. “It is really encouraging to see the state focus on the overall development of the health infrastructure,” said Dr More.