Funds to improve health infrastructure sought: Bhattacharjee

Kolkata, July 13 (UNI) Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today informed members of the state assembly that a considerable fund was sought from the DFID and the World Bank to improve the infrastructure of the state's health-care facilities.

Replying to a query from Trinamool Congress Member Ashok Kr Deb during the question hour today, the Chief Minister said while the majority of the proposed fund would be used for rural health infrastructure facilities, including the setting up of several well equipped primary health centres, the remaining amount would be earmarked for improving the health care facilities in state government hospitals.

Earlier, replying to another query from Mr Deb, the Chief Minister said altogether 4352 needy people had applied for help from the state government for their treatment, of whom 2730 have received financial help between Rs 10,000 and Rs 25,000 each.

He said while the Chief Minsiter's secretariat had sanctioned funds for 2525 patients, the department of health had provided similar assistance to 1827 more.

Moreover, the Chief Minister informed, each of the 19 districts had separate fund of Rs five lakhs for providing health care assistance to poor patients, in addition to Rs one lakh each in every government medical college for the same purpose. ''However, we consider that this is not enough and must more be done in making the poor avail of the for reaching health care services,'' he said.

''Keeping this in mind we are looking forward to the DFID and World bank,'' he clarified.

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