Funds released from Pradhan Mantri Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission

Madikeri: The long-pending and legitimate demand of the people of Kodagu for a Critical Care Centre comprising advanced facilities for ailments like heart and kidney and emergencies will soon become a reality as the Centre has released Rs. 25 crore to set up a new Critical Care Centre (CCC) at Madikeri under the Pradhan Mantri Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure (PMABHI) Mission.

The aim of PMABHI is to strengthen the critical healthcare network from village to block to the district to the regional and national level in the next 4-5 years. It will create elaborate facilities for diagnostics and treatment and there will be facilities for the early detection of diseases. Facilities like free medical consultation, free tests and free medicine will be available in these centres.

According to the guidelines released from the Centre, a 50-bed CCC will be set up in Kodagu as the total population in the district is within 5 to 20 lakh people. The building will be built in a 4,250 sq.ft area with an estimated cost of Rs. 16.63 crore. In all, Rs. 23.75 crore is the estimated expenditure for the building construction, other medical equipment and basic facilities.

District Health Committee supervision

The CCC will work as an important internal section wing of Kodagu District Hospital and Kodagu Institute of Medical Sciences which will be under the supervision of the District Health Committee. State Health Department Secretary, Additional Secretary and other officers will hold the responsibilities for the construction and functioning of all the CCCs which will be set up in different parts of the State.

The State Government must take up decisions with respect to the proposed land sanction for building construction and get a letter of consent from the regulatory agencies. Based on the population in the districts, 50, 75 or 100-bed CCC will be set up near the existing District Hospital and Medical College.

The State Government has to submit a detailed extended project list to the Central Government to get the blueprint of the CCC building and other basic facilities.

The project will be implemented by the Health Department in the State-level and National Health Mission (NHM) at the National-level. There are about 5 to 20 lakh people in over 274 districts across the country and all those districts will get  50-bed CCCs.

Speaking to Star of Mysore, about the new CCC at Madikeri, MLA M.P. Appachu Ranjan said that a memorandum was submitted to the PM and Union Health Minister requesting grants to set up Super Speciality Hospital in Kodagu as the people had to either go to Mangaluru or Mysuru to get critical care facilities and these places are more than 100 kilometres away.

“In this regard, MP Pratap Simha had drawn the attention of both Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and after this, Rs. 25 crore has been sanctioned under the Pradhan Mantri Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission to open a Critical Care Centre in Madikeri,” he said and thanked the PM, Union and State Health Ministers and MP Pratap Simha.

Land and building

Stating that land has already been earmarked to construct a new CCC building, Appachu Ranjan said that about 94-cent area is available at the Public Works Department (PWD) building located near General K. S. Thimayya Circle in Madikeri.

“The new Critical Care Centre can be built after demolishing the existing PWD building while a new place will be allotted to construct a new PWD building. A discussion related to this has already been done with the State PWD Minister where he has agreed for the same,” the MLA added.

Top officials and architects will visit the place soon to inspect the place and seek land alienation and allotment and the construction works will begin soon after the inspection. The building will have four floors with a parking lot on the ground floor and the remaining three floors will be used for hospital purposes.

The CCC will be useful to those who have heart and kidney-related issues. A request has been raised to sanction grants of Rs. 200 crore to build the hospital. If these grants are sanctioned, then there is no need for people to depend on such Super Speciality Hospitals in  Mysuru or Mangaluru, the MLA added.