The Karnataka government in its State Budget for the year 2014-15 has announced a total provision of Rs. 6,023 crore towards the departments of Health, Family Welfare and Medical Education. The portion constitutes four per cent of the total State Budget allocation of Rs. 65,600 crore.
In his Budget presentation, Karnataka chief minister unveiled an initiatives like the State’s Oral Health Policy with an allocation of Rs. 2 crore which is proposed to provide free dentures to senior citizens belonging to Below the Poverty Line (BPL) category.
Under ‘Mukhyamanthrigala Santhwana Yojane’ it has provided Rs. 5 crore where the government’s compensation amount of Rs. 25,000 will be given through Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust to road accident victims admitted to identified hospitals within the ‘Golden Hour’ to save critical cases.
The State allocated Rs. 52 crore for its ‘Prasuti Aaraike and Madilu Kit programme’ under the maternal and child health segment to expand the offering to all the beneficiaries in Bidar, Gulbarga, Koppal, Raichur, Yadgiri, Bellary, Bijapur, Bagalkote, Gadag and Chamarajnagar districts.
A new programme “Aaspathre Nairmalya” will be launched to encourage cleanliness of government hospitals.
Ayush department has developed energy biscuits aimed at preventing malnutrition in children. The state government will examine these biscuits to provide it as part of supplementary nutrition programme under Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) to children in the backward districts of Kolar, Bagalkote, Bellary and Gulbarga, said Karnataka chief minister.
For the treatment of rare diseases like haemophilia, thalassaemia, sickle-cell anaemia and primary immuno deficiency a special unit will be set up in Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health, Bengaluru on experimental basis to provide medicines and treatment to patients suffering from these diseases.
In the area of medical education, the government has proposed to set up three 250- bed super speciality hospitals in the revenue regional headquarters at Mysore, Belgaum and Gulbarga for which it has provided Rs. 6 crore.
The policy of the State is to provide one government medical college in every district in a phased manner. As part of this, it is proposed to set up six new medical colleges in Tumkur, Chitradurga, Chikkaballapur, Bagalakot, Haveri and Yadgiri districts during 2014-15 which would be in collaboration with Rajiv Gandhi Health Sciences University, said the Karnataka chief minister.
In addition, the Vijayanagar Institute of Medical Sciences (VIMS), Bellary and Kempegowda Institute of Medical Sciences (KIMS), Hubli will be upgraded at a total capital cost of Rs.150 crore each under the Central government sponsored scheme of ‘Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana’ (PMSSY). The Union government will provide Rs. 120 crore towards this capital expenditure.
Proposals have been submitted to the Union government to establish Tertiary Care Cancer Centres at the Institute of Medical Sciences in Mandya and Gulbarga for which the approval is awaited. In addition, the State has submitted to Centre for an assistance of Rs. 120 crore towards upgrading infrastructure of the Kidwai Memorial Cancer Institute.