Many of the sophisticated medical equipments provided to government hospitals in Karnataka through the World Bank funded Rs. 600 crore Karnataka Health Systems Project are now found to be gathering dust for want of qualified technicians and specialists for operating them.
A special investigation squad of the government of Karnataka revealed to Pharmabiz.com that the aid from the World Bank helped to upgrade several district health centres and hospitals but the sophisticated equipment provided to them remained unused. For instance, nearly 23 blood gas analysers costing around Rs.3 crore remained unused and the government now had to spend Rs. 60,000 per analyser to get them back into working condition.
Kagodu Thimmappa, minister for health and family welfare, government of Karnataka said that he had sought details about other such equipment from various hospitals in the State where the infrastructure had been developed with funds disbursed from World Bank.
Interestingly, the special investigation report has come at a time when the Government of Karnataka is planning to spend another Rs. 76 crore provided by the German government to improve the hospitals in the region spread over Andhra Pradesh-Karnataka border.