Strengthening of Intensive Care Units (ICUs) and mother and child care in rural government hospitals, allocation of additional budgetary grants for government general hospitals, and use of artificial intelligence (AI) and telemedicine in hospitals that lack expertise. These are some of the key suggestions made by health experts and top doctors at a meeting convened on Friday by Health Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao.
The meeting was convened to gather suggestions on Karnataka’s initiatives towards improving the public healthcare system, ahead of the State budget to be presented next month. A pre-budget meeting on health is scheduled to be held with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday.
With most of the participants expressing the need to strengthen ICUs in government hospitals, the Minister said while there is no shortage of ICU beds in taluk and district hospitals there is paucity of manpower. “ICU beds are not being provided in some hospitals due to shortage of staff. We will work out measures to set this right,” he said.
