Centre non-committal on more funding, future of e-health at stake in Kerala

  • | Monday | 15th October, 2018

Of the Rs 100 crore sanctioned by Centre in 2013, Rs 76 crore has been utilized for the pilot project itself. THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: After five years of its launch, it is going to be the end of e-health project in the state. Since the Centre is non-committal of further funding, now the state government is forced to source its own funds if it has to carry ahead with the e-health project. The pilot phase of this project could be completed only in January this year. The third phase of the project is supposed to cover all the government hospitals in the state.``The cost escalation and the delay in the execution of the project led to the derailment of the e-health project.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: After five years of its launch, it is going to be the end of e-health project in the state. Of the Rs 100 crore sanctioned by Centre in 2013, Rs 76 crore has been utilized for the pilot project itself. The pilot project covered only 11 hospitals in Thiruvananthapuram Now in the second phase of the project, it has to cover all the government hospitals in the seven districts for which only Rs 24 crore is left. The Central team which had visited the state a few days back, however, was non-committal of providing more funds for the project.``Of the pilot phase only in two hospitals the project has become totally functional and in other hospitals, it is in very phases. Now total computerisation of all government hospitals in seven districts is the target in the second phase,’’ said a senior health department official.The joint secretary with the ministry of central electronic and information technology department Sanjay Ghoel and Trilok Chandra, director of the e-health project, the government of India had visited the state capital a few days back to access the progress of the project.Even though the authorities brought before them the shortage of funds for completing the second and third phase of the project, no assurance was received from them. The third phase of the project is supposed to cover all the government hospitals in the state.``The cost escalation and the delay in the execution of the project led to the derailment of the e-health project. The project itself was underestimated. A minimum of Rs 350 crore is needed for the computerisation of all the government hospitals in the state,’’ said the health department official.The Centre is already unhappy over the way the state delayed with the project for which the sanction was accorded in 2013. The pilot phase of this project could be completed only in January this year. Since the Centre is non-committal of further funding, now the state government is forced to source its own funds if it has to carry ahead with the e-health project.

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