The Karnataka government has set up an Implementation Committee to execute the suggestions pointed out by the erstwhile Task Force on Health and Family Welfare, which highlighted the lacunae in the healthcare delivery system. The committee consists of three ministers- health and family welfare minister Kagodu Thimmappa, medical education minister Dr A B Malakaraddy and higher education minister Dr. G Parameshwara along with Lok Ayukta Vigilance director Dr. H Sudarshan who has chaired the Task Force on health.

The committee has been set up after a survey was conducted by the State government on the standard of healthcare where the results proved that it was a total failure as all sections of the Directorate of Health and Family Welfare was corrupt.

Dr. Sudarshan told Pharmabiz.com that the committee has already implemented 25 per cent of the suggestions, one of them being the increase of budget for the primary health centres from Rs. 50,000 to 75,000 a month. All the posts for lab technicians have been filled up. Around 80 doctors were sacked for not being present for several months at PHCs. Even for the purchase of drugs, the health department had short listed only seven pharmaceutical companies.

"Of the 12 major issues in the health sector, corruption took the first place. It has surprised the state ministers and bureaucrats that corruption was the first point on the health paper and it was then made the four or fifth aspect."

To illustrate the level of corruption, Dr. Sudarshan said a doctor getting a registration under the Karnataka Medical Council has to first pay a bribe of Rs. 100 before taking the Hippocrates' oath. Some of the other instances are that patients have to bribe staff at PHCs for taking an x-ray and receive diagnostic reports. Different bribe structures prevailed for patients to be shifted from the Operation Theatre (OT) to the ward and vice versa. This apart, even after delivery, the parents would be shown the baby only after a bribe was given, where for a female it was Rs. 150 and for male it was Rs. 100.

He further went on to state that there were no basic emergency drugs at the PHCs. Corruption was rampant even in equipment purchase where for a dialysis machine, which was priced at Rs. 4.5 crore, the sanction required to purchase the equipment by a government teaching medical college hospital was Rs. 12 crore.

According to him, currently, the Karnataka health department was working at 30 per cent efficiency and efforts are on to increase its competence any where between 50-60 per cent.

With all these problems of bribe and malpractices, Dr. Sudarshan was optimistic that the situation could be brought under control, as at least 15-20 per cent people working in the directorate of health and family welfare department were good. This is an encouraging sign, he noted.