Amid treatment cost worries, first govt trauma centre to open in Gurugram

GURUGRAM: The district will get its first government-run trauma centre soon to deal with serious injuries, mainly sustained in road accidents, Union health minister JP Nadda announced here on Saturday.
The minister, who was in the city to launch a programme on the occasion of National Deworming Day, further said a central team would soon visit the city to carry out a feasibility study for the proposed project. "A trauma centre will come up on NH-8, between Gurugram and Panchgaon. A technical team will visit and finalise the location soon. Work on the project can start immediately after that," Nadda added.

The announcement came after Haryana PWD minister Rao Narbir Singh took a potshot at the deplorable conditions of healthcare facilities in Gurugram and requested the Union health minister to build a bigger hospital with a trauma centre in the city.

Referring to recent incidents of alleged medical negligence and misappropriation at private hospitals, Narbir, who was also present at the event on Saturday, said, "In Gurugram, even if someone comes down with a fever, he might have to shell out Rs 15 lakh to get it treated."

Though he did not elaborate anything, Narbir was apparently referring to the death of seven-year-old Saurya Pratap, who was treated for dengue and charged Rs 15.88 lakh by a private hospital in the city, before his death in Delhi in November last year. The death triggered a massive controversy after his father filed complaints with the Union and state governments, accusing doctors of the Gurugram-based hospital of medical negligence and malpractices.

Launching the deworming programme, Nadda said the government was committed to ensure high-quality healthcare for every child up to the last mile. Observed on February 10 and August 10 every year, National Deworming Day is a single fixed-day approach to treat intestinal worm infections in all children aged 1-19 years.

Nadda said his ministry had launched the programme first in 2015 and implemented it in all state-run and government-aided schools, besides anganwadis, across 11 states and Union Territories.

"The government is aiming to reach around 50 crore children this year," Nadda said, releasing the 'deworming factsheet' at the event.

Nadda further said the central government was in the process of converting around 1.5 lakh primary healthcare centres across the country into wellness centres, which would be well-equipped to treat all non-communicable diseases and would provide free diagnostic services. The wellness centres will also have facilities to treat lifestyle diseases.

At the event, the health minister also inaugurated a diagnostic laboratory and a fair-price pharmacy — Affordable Medicines and Reliable Implants for Treatment (Amrit).

Located at Mahaveer Chowk near the Gurugram bus stand, the pharmacy will sell all medicines at subsidised rates, up to 60% of the MRP. Anyone with a prescription will be able to purchase medicines at the pharmacy. Though it will stock drugs for all diseases, it would specially focus on easy availability of medicine for cancer and cardiovascular diseases.

The diagnostic laboratory, on the other hand, will be operational in April. All kinds of diagnostic facilities will be available at the centre in Sector 39. The rates of various facilities will be as per the Central Government Health Scheme.