The state has a lack of hospitals and doctors, although the research policy has often been criticized.
Patna:
In the last week of March, when the first COVID-19 case was registered in Bihar, the Nitish government named the Nalanda Medical College and Hospital (NMCH) of the state as a dedicated hospital for the treatment of the illness. Two more medical colleges were subsequently permitted to treat patients with COVID-19.
But the Bihar government neglected its own medical colleges after the Center requested all state governments to choose a medical college and hospital as Centers of Excellence (CoE) in COVID-19 management. It selected instead the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Patna, which is under the Health and Family Welfare Ministry of the Country.
This judgment bears witness to the serious shortage of facilities at state-run hospitals.
Four COVID-19 dedicated hospitals are presently in service in Bihar: NMCH (Patna), AIIMS Patna, Anugraha Narayan Magadh Medical College and Hospital (Gaya), and Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College and Hospital (Bhagalpur). Besides these, healthcare is also given by the Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) and the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS). Ironically, though, the state government considers none of these, suitable to be named CoE.
According to a Times of India article on August 10, Manoj Kumar, director of the Bihar State Health Society, wrote a letter saying, "The center of excellence will create an integrated environment that will allow two-way contact to recognize and address clinical patient care issues and improve capacity building by disseminating services to all related facilities."
He justified the decision to nominate AIIMS-P as a CoE, stating that from day one the Institute has helped develop the capacity of the State to handle COVID-19. He said AIIMS was "the obvious alternative" because only a dedicated COVID-19 hospital can be classified as a CoE according to the preconditions of the Centre. IGIMS was not a hospital devoted to COVID-19 and was later known as PMCH, Kumar said.
A majority of government officials and politicians who contracted COVID-19 chose AIIMS-P for treatment instead of any state-funded hospitals, which also indicates better facilities are available for the institute.But concerns are being raised on whether the government has not improved the state hospital system in the past.
Experts are dismayed by the move
Doctors in the state are disturbed by the preference of AIIMS Patna as the CoE. They describe the government's action as "shameful," telling the 95-year-old PMCH, 50-year-old NMCH and Anugrah Narayan Magadh Medical College and Hospital why it "ignored."
Dr. Sunil Kumar, secretary of the Indian Medical Association (Bihar Chapter) said , "It is shameful that the government of Bihar could not find its own decades-old medical schools fit for CoE and that it had to designate AIIMS Patna, which came into being only eight years ago."
No environmental infrastructures
The shortage of adequate health sector services at Bihar is mirrored on the field.
NMCH, the first hospital devoted to COVID-19 in Bihar, has about two dozen vacancies for physicians. Dr Vinod Kumar Singh, Superintendent of the NMCH, told The Cable, "Indeed, we are missing facilities. We are not the same amenities as AIIMS Patna has, "he added.
"The state government took the decision to pick a CoE and I can't comment on it. Yet we do have a poor infrastructure, it is a reality.
On 21 July Vinod Kumar Singh was appointed the Superintendent. Earlier the superintendent was Dr Nirmal Kumar Sinha. Also visited NMCH was the Central Group that came to examine the progress of COVID-19 management at Bihar in July. It's suspected the manager was upset with the medical arrangements. The report was that Sinha told the central team that the government of the state did not have amenities that irked the government of Nitish Kumar. He had been dropped as soon as Bihar quit the Central staff. Besides that, medical images of dead bodies surrounding COVID-19 patients went viral.
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