Bihar announces setting up five new medical colleges

Patna, Dec 17: Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today announced that five new medical colleges will be set up in Bihar as he worked to overhaul and strengthen health care infrastructure in the state.

The medical colleges would be opened as per specifications of MCI (Medical Council of India) and all of them would have nursing colleges, Kumar said while reviewing the functioning of the state health department, according to an official statement.

The Bihar government, which has prioritised health sector in its agenda, gave necessary directions to further streamline functioning of government hospitals across the state.

The review meeting was attended by minister Tej Pratap Yadav, chief secretary Anjani Kumar Singh and principal secretary R K Mahajan, among others.

The chief minister directed that free medicines should be provided to the needy without any interruption in government hospitals. He ordered to transform four bed intensive units in government hospitals into 10-bedded Intensive Care Units, the statement quoting principal secretary, health, R K Mahajan said.

Kumar further instructed that additional primary health centres in all districts should have facility of radiology and pathology.

In a bid to enforce punctuality among doctors, he asked to constitute a state-level team to monitor attendance of doctors and para-medical staffs.

Those found absent from duty should be dealt with severely, he said. Kumar directed to open an de-addiction centres in every district, which was considered important as the CM has already committed to ban liquor in the state from April 1, 2016.

The Chief Minister ordered that landline telephone should be functional in every primary health centres and in-charge of PHCs would be held responsible in case of landline telephone connection found not functioning. Mahajan said the CM instructed that patients suffering from Kalazar should be paid 30 days wage at the rate of minimum wage rate.

Besides, attendant accompanying Kalazar patients be provided two days of wage loss.

PTI