Bhubaneswar: In a significant step towards universal health care, Odisha Chief Minister Nuveen Patnaik has approved the provision of “corpus fund” for hiring super specialists and specialists on contractual basis for the Capital Hospital and BMC Hospital in Bhubaneswar.
With this sanction, lakhs of people from the state capital and adjoining areas depending on these two hospitals will get free super specialty consultation and treatment, official sources said on Thursday.
Health and Family Welfare Secretary Shalini Pandit said the fund will be placed with the Director, Capital Hospital, Bhubaneswar. A Committee consisting of the Director, PGIMER, Bhubaneswar, the Director Health Services Odisha (DHS) and the Director Capital Hospital, Bhubaneswar under the chairmanship of the Commissioner, BMC, Bhubaneswar will select and hire suitable Medical Professionals at individual negotiated rates, she said.
It is pertinent here to mention that Capital Hospital is being developed and expanded to the level of a Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research. The intelligentsia expressing satisfaction over such move of the Government, expressed the hope that common people would be saved from highly expensive super specialty care in private hospitals.
