TPCC Vice-President Mohammed Ali Shabbir strongly condemned the decision of the Telangana government to
shift the TB & Chest Hospital located at Erragadda to the TB Sanatorium in Anantagiri of Vikarabad in the Ranga Reddy district.
Addressing a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan on Wednesday, Shabbir Ali described the decision as autocratic and inhuman. Accusing Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao of acting like a monarch, he said that the decision would hurt thousands of patients and hundreds of employees.
He said that the 670-bed hospital got nearly 200 patients suffering from breathing or respiratory problems and an equal number of HIV patients with TB co-infection every day. It also housed a 100-bed facility for HIV patients, which was a one-of-its-kind facility in India.
He said that patients at various stages of tuberculosis, asthma, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), pneumonia, lung cancer, swine flu (H1N1) and also HIV would face a lot of inconvenience if the hospital were shifted.
"How could the government expect patients suffering from serious respiratory disorders to travel 70 km to get treatment?" he asked, adding that almost all patients who visited the TB & Chest Hospital were poor. Travelling to Vikarabad for treatment would not only affect their health further, most of them would be forced to discontinue treatment midway due their inability to bear the travelling costs, he said.
Shabbir Ali said that it was completely illogical to shift a teaching hospital attached to the Osmania Medical College. He said that the hospital would lose 11 PG seats in Pulmonology which were recently permitted by the Medical Council of India, since as per the MCI Rules, a teaching hospital needed to be located within 8 km of a medical college.
The shifting of hospital to Vikarabad would also hurt nearly 300 staff members including 50 doctors, he said.
The Congress leader said that the Chief Minister was initially planning to convert the hospital land into a parade ground. Now he wanted to construct a new Secretariat.
"The present Secretariat building will be half empty once the Andhra Pradesh government shifts its base to its new capital. Therefore, there is no need for a new Secretariat building," he said, also rejecting the Chief Minister's proposal to construct high-rise buildings in the place of present Secretariat.
He alleged that the Chief Minister was taking autocratic decisions citing ridiculous reasons. He asked KCR to explain the sources of funding through which he wanted to fund the construction of the proposed new Secretariat and the high-rise buildings.
Shabbir Ali demanded that the state government modify the GO Rt. No. 61 to drop the proposal of shifting the TB & Chest Hospital.
However, he said that the administrative sanction of Rs 7.70 crores for repairs and modernisation of the TB Sanitorium at Vikarabad should be honoured. (INN)