BHUBANESWAR: Strengthening heath systems to ensure people avail healthcare services they need, in time and without suffering any financial hardship, is the basis of Universal Health Coverage (UHC). The failures of the Health department are defeating the very goals of UHC which the State Government is avowed to achieve.

Pioneering programmes like Biju Swasthya Kalyan Yojana, free treatment, diagnostics and medicines in all public health facilities are floundering due to lack of adequate infrastructure, manpower shortage and more importantly apathy of the Health department. The Trauma Care Centres (TCCs) in the State are a glaring instance.

As inconceivable as it may appear, the life-saving critical care facilities for accident victims have been lying in limbo for over a decade now, thanks to the inaction of the department. The State Government had signed MoU with Union Government for setting up seven TCCs in February 2008. They included three medical colleges - SCBMCH Cuttack, MKCGMCH Berhampur and VIMSAR Burla - along with the district headquarters hospitals (DHHs) at Bhadrak, Balasore and Khurda and Rourkela Government Hospital. Puri DHH was added to the list later.

Ten years have passed since but not a single TCC has achieved full-fledged functionality. The continuous neglect is starkly evident at SCBMCH, which languishes as a namesake with only a five-storey building to flaunt.

Almost eight years after being inaugurated by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, it is yet to provide 24-hour service. The OTs function only during the day defeating the very purpose of a TCC where timely care is paramount to save lives. The facility presently has 40 beds, 14 ICU beds and two OTs against an envisaged 150 beds and 16-bed ICU with round-the-clock services.

Moreover, the facility designated Level-I to provide composite trauma care under one roof doesn’t even take patients under its own wings. Accident victims are admitted under different departments like orthopaedics, neurosurgery, ophthalmology etc. and housed at the facility. Lack of adequate staff has further affected its functioning.

Nodal officer Prof IB Kar said the Government has already started the process of recruitment of doctors and staff for the facility. “Eight medical officers will be appointed soon and steps have been initiated to recruit 16 senior residents along with nursing and Class IV staff. In a recent review meeting by the Minister, it has been decided to develop this TCC into a Centre of Excellence,” he said.

However, the assertion does not raise much hope going by the continuous inaction of the Health department. Last year, a committee comprising Special Secretary, Health and Family Welfare department and senior officials was formed to examine, monitor and speed up works on TCCs. The TCCs have not made any marked progress and are still stuttering for a start.

Well-equipped TCCs along the major roads are of prime importance as Odisha has seen a continuous rise in road accidents. While the country has registered three per cent reduction in accident fatalities between 2016 and 2017, the State has posted 7.3 per cent increase during the period.Unless there is sincerity to the TCC cause by the department, preventable deaths will continue and the UHC will remain only a high-sounding proclamation.