Pics: Spoorthi Ullal

Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (JS)

Mangaluru, Mar 7: "The chief minister's Santwana Yojana for accident victims, renamed after Harish Nanjappa, 23, who donated his eyes moments before his death in a horrific accident at Nelamangala last month will be launched by chief minister Siddaramaiah on March 8 at 10 am," announced health minister U T Khader here, on Monday March 7.

Addressing a press meet here at Circuit House, Khader said, "Harish while lying on the road waiting for assistance pledged to donate his eyes and other organs. This gesture is inspiring for the whole of mankind. There are two reasons behind not admitting accident victims to hospital. One is because of trouble by police, which has decreased now and the other is money that needs to be paid at the hospital."

"The scheme will look at providing assistance to victims of road traffic accidents across the state irrespective of their financial status or nationality. The victim will receive medical care for 48 hours and will be able to receive treatment at any hospital. No hospital can reject accident victims. If so action will be taken against such hospitals."

"In order to ensure proper implementation, it will employ a software covering hospital registration, patient registration, claims submission and packages. Participating hospitals have been categorised into levels 1, 2 and 3 trauma centres based on the facilities available. Level 1 will include major super specialty hospitals, level 2 will have district level secondary hospitals and level 3 being the small taluk level hospitals. Emergency toll free helplines (108 and 104) are also setup to assist accident victims."

"The government has already sanctioned Rs 10 crore towards this scheme. We have asked for Rs 75 crore in this budget for the coming year and the chief minister has already agreed to grant this amount. Chief minister has also promised to give an additional grant for the said scheme if required."

On the proposed construction of a new building and renovation and restoration of the existing buildings of Wenlock district hospital by Kasturba Medical College (KMC) based on the agreement for 30 years, he said, "It is a policy matter which needs to be decided at government level. They have been charged Rs 2 crore per annum for the clinical services out of which Rs 1 crore is deducted for staff salaries provided by them. There are some conditions which need to be taken care of like, all facilities should be made available by them, they should redevelop the hospital according to medical council of India standards and since the hospital has 1,000 beds if they introduce MBBS courses then they must give 50 percent of the seats to the government. In case we agree for 30 years then we cannot introduce government medical college here at Wenlock hospital for 30 years. All these points will be taken account of."