Expensive hospital machines languish
Highly-advanced cardiac operation machines are gathering dust in the Western Railway’s Jagjivan Ram Hospital at Mumbai Central for almost a year. The machines were bought from the UK two-and-a- half years ago, but were installed only in 2012 by Railway Board chairman Vinay Mittal. The Railways has spent `20 crore on the cardio vascular thoracic surgery (CVTS) project.
“As of now, only angiography is conducted at the hospital and the remaining 80 per cent of the equipment is lying unused as the Railways failed to provide manpower and other nursing staff to handle the operations. Three years of warranty period has been lost without using any of the equipment, which are worth `5-7 crore,” said a source.
The CVTS department at Jagjivan Ram Hospital is touted as one of the finest and best equipped in the city. Some of these machines include electronic beds, OT light machines, temporary pacemaker and co-agulation anilizer machines.
A senior official of a union said, “The Railways is deliberately not taking interest in making the hospital fully functional so that senior railway officials can continue to avail treatment in private five-star hospitals. But, C and D grade railway staff is suffering due to this as they have no access to expensive private hospitals.”
Last month, when the WR advertised, many leading cardiologists expressed interest in practising at the hospital, but non-provision of nursing staff stalled all projects.
A doctor at the Jagjivan Ram Hospital said, “Senior railway officials are involved in criminal wastage of railway money in private hospitals. If our departments are fully functional, the Railways can save approximately `6-7 crors per year.”
When contacted, DRM of Mumbai division said, “I will have to check into the matter.”
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‘India could be skill capital of world’
Mumbai, April 8: India has the potential to emerge as the skill capital of the world, provided we succeed in equipping our working age population with marketable skills, Vice-President M. Hamid Ansari said on Tuesday.
“India is one of the few countries where the working age population will be far in excess of those dependent on them. According to the World Bank, this will continue for at least three decades till 2040. This would be a potential source of strength for our economy, if we take the right steps to harness this demographic dividend,” he said, delivering the convocation address at the North Maharashtra University at Jalgaon.
“If our GDP grows at an average rate of about eight per cent till 2022, it is expected that we will need a skilled workforce of 500 million people by 2022, with around 12 million people expected to join the workforce every year. For an economy to sustain this growth rate, it would be essential for the workforce to be exposed to acquiring newer skills either through higher/technical education or vocation skills or a combination of both,” Mr Ansari said.
Quoting the 12th Plan document, Mr Ansari, however, lamented that our higher education institutions suffer from problems of quality. —PTI
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