T-Cong opposes shifting of TB & Chest Hospital

Hyderabad, Jan 28 (INN): TPCC Vice-President Mohammed Ali Shabbir has strongly condemned the decision of the Telangana Government to shift TB & Chest Hospital located at Erragadda to TB Sanatorium in Ananthagiri of Viqarabad in Ranga Reddy district.

Addressing a press conference at Gandhi Bhavan here on Wednesday, Shabbir Ali described the decision as autocratic and inhuman. Accusing Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao of acting like a monarch, he said that the decision would hurt thousands of patients and hundreds of employees. He said the 670-bedded hospital gets an inflow of nearly 200 patients suffering from breathing or respiratory problems and an equal number of HIV patients with TB co-infection on daily basis. It also houses a 100-bedded facility for HIV patients, which is one of its kind in India. He said patients at various stages of Tuberculosis, Asthma, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), Pneumonia, Lung Cancer, Swine Flu (H1N1) and also HIV would face lot of inconvenience if the hospital is shifted.

"How could the government expect patients suffering from serious respiratory disorders to travel 70 km to get treatment?" he asked adding that almost all patients who visit TB& Chest Hospital are poor. Travelling to Viqarabad for treatment would not only deteriorate their health, but most of them would be forced to discontinue treatment midway due their inability to bear the travelling cost, he said.

Shabbir Ali said it was completely illogical to shift a teaching hospital attached to the Osmania Medical College. He said that the hospital would lose 11 PG seats in Pulmonology which were recently permitted by the Medical Council of India. Further, as per the MCI Rules, a teaching hospital should be located within 8 km radius of medical college. Therefore, the Osmania Medical College would be deprived of 11 PG seats due to this move. The shifting of hospital to Viqarabad would also hurt nearly 300 staff members including 50 doctors, he said.

The Congress leader said that the Chief Minister was initially planning to convert the hospital land into parade ground. Now he wants to construct a new Secretariat. "The present Secretariat building will be half empty once Andhra Pradesh Government shifts its base to its new capital. Therefore, there is no need for a new Secretariat building," he said while rejecting the Chief Minister's proposal to construct high-rise buildings in the place of present Secretariat. He alleged that the Chief Minister was taking autocratic decisions while citing ridiculous reasons. He asked KCR to explain the sources of funding through which he wants to fund the construction of new Secretariat and high-rise buildings.

Shabbir Ali demanded that the State Government modify the GO Rt No. 61 to drop the proposal of shifting TB&Chest Hospital. However, he said that the administrative sanction of Rs 7.70 crore for repairs and modernisation of TB Sanitorium at Viqarabad should be honoured.