The plight of Bihar’s health services has once again come to the fore. The picture of the plight of health services has been released in the report of the Auditor General (CAG). The report for the year ended March 2020 has been released by the Principal Accountant General (PAG) of Bihar, Ramavtar Sharma.
The report said that despite huge investments from the government, the state’s health services are not being successful in providing basic medical facilities to the people.
Talking to media persons after placing the report in the Vidhan Sabha, Sharma said that the audit report conducted in the wake of the COVID pandemic shows that in view of the burden of resources, manpower and population in government hospitals, mainly district hospitals, there is no need for them. There is a huge shortage of plans.
The report said that district hospitals have been facing a shortage of beds. There is a shortage of 52 to 92% in different hospitals as compared to the health standard of the country. The number of beds in district hospitals is very less as compared to the population. The report said that even after a lapse of more than a decade, the number of beds has not been increased to the permissible level.
Due to shortage of doctors and specialists in district hospitals, 12 to 15 essential services like Cardiology, Gastro, Enterology, Nephrology, ENT could not be provided to the patients coming to OPD. The objective of providing free medicines to the patients has also not been fulfilled. 59 per cent of OPD patients had to spend their pocket money to buy medicines.
Sharma said that none of the five district hospitals Patna, Jehanabad, Biharsharif, Hajipur and Madhepura that were checked for sampling had an operation theater (OT) for emergency services.
He said that the shortage of essential medicines in OTs ranged from 64–91% of the norm. It is clear from this that patients have to buy essential medicines as well. He said the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) was available only at the Jehanabad district hospital. There was no Cardiac Care Unit (CCU) in any hospital.
The report further stated that nine district hospitals, including Patna, did not have any blood banks, except two existing blood banks had valid licenses during the period 2014-20. The report made critical comments on the functioning of Bihar Medical Services and Infrastructure Corporation Limited (BMSICL), which supplies essential drugs and medical equipment to hospitals. The report said that 70 essential medicine list (EDL) drugs were not supplied to hospitals during 2017-18 and 66 EDL drugs during 2018-19.
The PAG said that BMSICL could spend only 3,103 (29%) on various projects against the available funds of Rs 10,743 crore. Out of the total 1097 projects undertaken by BMSICL during 2014-20, only 187 could be completed while 523 were still in progress and work on 387 was yet to be started.