Karnataka government has allocated Rs 40crore to set up a Diabetes Research centre and a 100-bed general hospital in Bangalore. The investment for the research centre will be Rs 10 crore while the estimated cost of the 100 bed hospitals is Rs 30 crore.

The research centre is being set up in view of the increasing incidence of diabetics in the State which is about 25 per cent of the 40 million diabetic population in the country.

The construction of the diabetic research centre and the hospital will commence in August this year, Karnataka Minister for health and family welfare R Ashok told Pharmabiz.

While the Diabetic Research Centre is coming up on a 35 acre plot at Indiranagar in Bangalore at an investment of Rs 10 crore, the general hospital will be established within the Leprosy Centre Compound on Magadi Road in the city.

Going hand in hand with the two initiatives, the government is also setting up a nephrology unit which is a modern facility in the Victoria Hospital, the oldest healthcare medical centre in the State to offer free treatment to the poor. With an alarming rate of 57 million chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients projected in the year 2025 from the 19 million in 1995, at least 15 million to 20 million CKD patients can be prevented at a low cost, if detected in the early stages, stated the health minister.

Another development is that the State health department has set up a revolving fund with an initial allocation of Rs seven crore to deliver free medical services to the people belonging to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes. The funds can be made use for the heart, kidney and brain surgery.

The state has also been affected with the increasing number of rabies dog bites. As part of the efforts to control the fatal cases, the health minister stated that the department has issued a circular directing all government hospital and health centres not to turn away poor patients who are bitten by dogs in the wake of a sudden shortage of rabies vaccines The hospitals have been instructed to purchase the anti rabies vaccines using the money from the user-charges collected from each patient.

Further, the government has also issued a circular to all government hospitals and health centres advising the doctors not to ask patients to purchase from private pharmacies, instead the government will provide the medicine at free of cost.

To optimize the services of the out patient departments in all the government hospitals, the centres will be opened between 5.30 pm to 8.30 pm sp that the working class can access the facilities.