Karnataka Task Force on health and family welfare is sore about the tardy progress over the implementation of recommendations by the government of Karnataka. The shortcomings noticed by the Task Force are regular dependence on out side drugs to be bought by patients, alcoholism among health and hospital staff, continued services of doctors who are suspended by the department and rampant corruption across the hospital employees.

The Task Force in it inspection at various hospitals has found that even poor patients are given prescriptions to purchase drugs from out side regularly with no stock of essential drugs in the hospitals. There has been a rampant rise in alcoholism among the health staff and even the suspended doctors, paramedical staff are reinstated in the same hospital ignoring the department action, the Task Force members say. They added that there had been a supply of unwanted medicines and the call for transparency in functioning by the Task Force was totally ignored. Corruption charges noticed in the services provided by doctors, nurses, ward boys, issuing certificates, blood transfusion and post mortem bribes are accepted at every stage of treatment, the Task Force reports.

However, following these findings, Dr. H Sudarshan, chief of the Karnataka Task Force on health and family welfare, has sent letters to the State government expressing his displeasure over the state of the health service in the State.

The Task Force chief in his correspondence to Dr. A B Malakaraddy, minister for health and family welfare, government of Karnataka and to the Dr. G Parameshwara, minister for medical education, pointed out that he visited hospitals in all districts in the State along with the Lok Ayukta, a vigilance cell of the State government and found that the recommendations of the Task Force was not fully implemented.

The government of Karnataka has set up a committee headed by the MB Prakash, additional chief secretary to monitor the implementation. But his efforts are just in the form of files, which lists the recommendations that are yet to be implemented. This is followed by a corruption charges in the health and medical education department.

Dr. Sudarshan also chairs the vigilance department on health for Lok Ayukta. The World Bank team is expected to be in Bangalore for a study on the progress of the works by the Karnataka Health Systems Development Project (KSHSDP).

He told www. pharmabiz.com that he was unhappy that his suggestions were not implemented. "If the same laid-back approach continues, it will not be surprising that the World Bank will back out of the proposed Rs. 875 crore project for an integrated primary health care system.

Delving into some of the inadequacies, Dr. Sudarshan said that under the KHSDP, although the hospitals are upgraded from 30 to 60 beds and the staff strength was increased but that there was an acute shortage of essential drugs.

About the doctors not reporting for duty at their places of posting, Dr. Sudarshan said that the cadre and recruitment rules would be in place within three months. The rules envisage that after appointment, a doctor will be in a district for 13 years. He also said that the Lok Ayukta and his Task Force team had managed to prevent a private medical college in Bangalore from collecting Rs. 40,000 as a package to pass students in obstetrics and general medicine. A case was also booked against the examiner of a government medical college in north Karnataka district for collecting Rs. 2,000 from each student to pass them.