Nitish Lays Foundation for Eye Hospital, Trauma Center

Chief minister Nitish Kumar laid the foundation stones of a 106-bed super specialty eye hospital at Rajendra Nagar and a trauma center at Jayaprakash Narayan Hospital in Rajvanshinagar in Patna. He also announced formal commencement of construction works on the two projects. Addressing a function on the occasion, Nitish said soon after coming to power in November 2005, he had decided to develop the existing Rajendra Nagar hospital as an eye hospital and for that his government had contacted Dr Rajyavardhan Azad of AIIMS-Delhi. CM said he was very happy that the work for a super-specialty eye hospital was being commenced. He said the existing OPD at the Rajendra Nagar hospital would continue till the super specialty hospital gets ready. Recalling a series of steps taken by the NDA government for improving healthcare and hospital system in Bihar, Nitish said the overall situation in the state health sector was very awful before he formed government in November 2005.

“In a survey conducted by his government in February 2006, it was found that only 39 patients on an average visited a primary health center (PHC) in a month. To improve the condition, we posted sufficient number of doctors, paramedical staff and nurses at each PHC and made arrangements for necessary items. The then Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat had inaugurated the arrangements for free medicines at government hospitals in August 2006,” the CM said. Nitish said the state government got another survey conducted in October-November 2006 and it was found that the number of patients visiting one PHC had reached 1000 to 1500 per month. “Today, the average number of patients visiting a PHC per month has reached to 10,500,” the CM said. Health minister Mangal Pandey, principal secretary (health) Sanjay Kumar and MLA Arun Kumar Sinha also addressed the function. – TOI