Agartala: Tripura Chief Minister Manik Saha on Monday conducted a surprise inspection of the GB Pant Hospital here and directed officials to address deficiencies in infrastructure, maintenance and patient care at the state’s premier government healthcare facility.
Saha, who also holds the Health portfolio, reviewed the hospital’s infrastructure, maintenance, availability of doctors and allied health staff, and other facilities during the visit.
Speaking to the reporters after his visit, Saha said, “We are trying to decentralise the whole healthcare delivery system and make sure that the government hospitals function in a corporate style. GB Pant hospital being the prime referral hospital recorded the highest footfalls of patients from across the state.”
“We want to simplify the whole system. The medical services related to mother and child care shall be shifted to Mother and Child Care hospital coming up at IGM hospital. The eyecare unit will be shifted to the dedicated eye hospital which is coming up just a kilometre away from GB hospital. It will be under the administrative control of GB hospital,” he added.
According to the Chief Minister, he had directed the officials to sort out the difficiencies in an effective way.
“I have directed the secretary to address all the issues, ensure proper maintenance of facilities and resolve the problems faced by patients. I will visit the hospital again to review the progress,” he said.
Saha said he would hold meetings with the executive engineers responsible for GB Pant Hospital and Indira Gandhi Memorial (IGM) Hospital to resolve pending infrastructure-related issues.
“We must ensure that all the problems are solved. We are also planning to implement at GB Pant Hospital measures similar to those introduced at the Civil Hospital. The medicine ward is also being renovated,” he said.
The Chief Minister said all departments of the hospital would be inspected as part of efforts to improve healthcare services.
Health Secretary Kiran Gitte and senior officials of the Health Department accompanied the chief minister during the inspection.
GB Pant Hospital is the state’s main referral hospital and caters to patients from different parts of Tripura.