Hyderabad: Government Maternity Hospital stared of funds for two years

Hyderabad: No doubt that the Telangana government had put efforts to fight against Covid it had ignored the other sectors of public health badly during the pandemic apart from Covid-19. Though the government claims that health sector is its priority, the government-run hospitals are facing challenges to facilitate patients and maintaining hospitals has become a difficult task as they lack budget for almost two years now.

More than 1.5 crore bills are pending at the government maternity hospital, Nayapul, the hospital has not received any budget after June 2018. The government releases the budget every quarter in a year. The government maternity hospital has received its last budget in the second quarter of 2018 and the hospital is still waiting for dues.The administration is in debt and pending payments of Rs 30 lakh to oxygen supplier, 30 lakhs to the stationary supplier, 70 lakhs to surgical Services. Also, medicine suppliers stop supplying themedicine as they were not been paid since the last two years. According to sources the suppliers who used to supply medicine earlier in 2018 also didn't get paid.The government may state excuse that we spent huge amounts fighting against Coronavirus due to which the budget is delayed a little, but the reality is that the budget was due for since mid of 2018.

"The hospital pending bills are in lakhs. We were forced to stop the medicine supply due to huge losses during the pandemic. The manufacturers are also making pressure on us to clear the dues, but we are not in a position to pay them. We have made many requests, but the hospital administration has not responded yet," said a supplier, requested to be anonymous.

"Yes, a few bills are due to different services such as stationary, oxygen and surgical, the service providers were providing services normally but for a few days, they are pressuring to clear the dues. We had forwarded many requests to the concerned department, but the requests are still pending as the whole health department is busy tackling the pandemic.

Not only one but many other government hospitals in the State are facing the same situations, the suppliers need not worry as the government will clear all the dues after dealing with pandemic," said Dr SNagamani, Superintendent of Government Maternity Hospital Nayapul.

Lack of budget has impacted maintenance. The hospital is unable to maintain things in result patients are suffering for basic amenities. The lift in the hospital doesn't work properly due to poor maintenance, shifting a patient in the wards on the second or third floor would be difficult for the staff in the situation.

The management is unable to provide even drinking water to the patients and attendees in the hospital. No cleaning is being done on daily basis in hospitals due to improper cleaning the patients are complaining about cockroaches, and mice in wards.