 Hello and welcome to NewsClick, a special hospital setup for the Bhopal victim is facing crisis today. To know more about the issue we have with us, Jayaprakash, who is joint secretary of Delhi Science Forum and has been working on this issue since last three decades. Welcome to NewsClick, sir. So this hospital, first of all, why was it set up and who had set it up? You must know some background of the tragedy. The Bhopal disaster took place on the night of 2nd, 3rd December, 1984. At that time, nearly 6 lakh people were exposed to the toxic gases and at that time the hospital facilities in Bhopal were so inadequate to treat this huge number of gas victims. Initially a lot of voluntary organizations came in to provide healthcare facilities to gas victims. One of it was the Jens Swastikaindra and subsequently our demand on the Government of India and the State Government was to set up more facilities for treating gas victims. Because nothing happened in August 1985, we filed a petition for the Supreme Court. And since the matter, we have been highlighting the need for setting up better hospital facilities and giving better treatment to gas victims. And this was going on and on. And then finally, because nothing was moving, we filed a petition again in January 1988 bringing to the court that there are still inadequate facilities, etc. It is after that the Bhopal Memorial Hospital was set up. Because one of the conditions in 1991, the courts also directed Union Carbide Corporation to fund the setting up for hospital, for treating gas victims. So, the fund that is coming from the Union Carbide? The Union Carbide did not pay of pay. What happened was their assets in India were sold off because of non-appearance in the criminal case. Their assets were attached and the Supreme Court permitted the sale of the attached properties of Union Carbide. Nearly 300 crores were raised on that basis. And 60 crores were spent on building this hospital at that time. This was in 1998, start of the hospital. So, it came up in 2000. It was a 350 bedded hospital. And in 2000, it was the best hospital in Bhopal, best equipped and best super speciality hospital in Bhopal. So, what actually has happened that the situation has come to this and what is that severe crisis? See, what happened was in 2010, we were not satisfied with the method, the administration which was in place in Bhima Chhazi at that time. So, we said, we were demanding that the government of India take over the hospital and run at them. And in 2010, Chief Justice, who was head of the trust, voluntarily relinquished office and handed over the trust to the government of India. One of our complaints in 2010 was, as I said, a lot of private patients are getting treated. So, it became so scandalous because private patients were given private and non-gas victims were given priority in treatment in Bhima Chhazi at the expense of gas victims. We said, this is ridiculous. It cannot happen because we are not opposed to private patients getting treatment, but the priority should be gas victims. And in 2010, after it was taken over by the government of India, less emphasis on private patients started. And one of the demands was also recruitment rules. See, because when it became under the government of India, a lot of specialists left the hospital and went elsewhere because their income from private patients started decreasing. So, one of our demands was that the hospital becomes a teaching hospital so that it can attract the best talent in the country. Because a lot of people who are not doctors, who are not actually interested in making money, but they are interested in teaching and there are more commitment to their profession. So, we have been repeatedly demanding that the CHS rules, that is the central health services rules, recruitment rules be applied to Bhima Chhazi also. It started deteriorating when the government of India proposed setting up separate aims all in the instead of medical sciences and a unit in Bhopal. See, one of the, they had six aims being set up various parts of the country and one of it is in Bhopal. So, they started giving preference to aims. And that is one of the reasons that they did not want to apply the same CHS rules to Bhima Chhazi. And because of this lack of proper rules, many of the doctors didn't know what would happen to the Kriyayaji. So, they started many of the senior consultants started leaving the hospital and going elsewhere and they were forced to shut down many of the departments and many of other departments were running less than 50% of the faculty strength. The other crisis was when the government of India took over, the hospital had a lot of costly medical equipments and they were under annual maintenance contracts from various companies. These contracts were not renewed. So, over a period of time many of the costly equipments broke down and they were not replaced and many outdated equipments were never replaced. So, many of the committed doctors are also faced a lot of problems in carrying out. And then, for example, shortage of anesthetists because of which departments could not carry out various surgical processes. So, instead of carrying out surgeries five days a week, it came down to one or two days a week and the quality of treatment which was being given to GAS victims started deteriorating. And the monitoring committee, monitoring committee is the committee which was set up by the Supreme Court to monitor the conditions and the hospitals set up specially for GAS victims. It is headed by a formal judge of the High Court, Madhupadi High Court, Justice Agarwal. And this committee has been monitoring and sending all regular reports pointing out to the deficiencies both in the GAS relief hospitals as well as the hospital and units run by the Bhopal Memorial Hospital. And none of the recommendations were ever implemented. So, the crisis has been building up over a period of years and the Government of India was fully aware. So, we suspect that there was a vested interest in along this hospital to reach to this stage. Yeah, because they were really not interested in taking proper steps to ensure that it remains the best hospital in Bhopal. So, what are those vested interests? I mean, why did the Government of India? We suspect there is an attempt to privatize the hospital because of the funds available. Yeah, because the funds, the BMHRC has about 700 crores, because after the initial 300 crores over the last 17 years, interest and various other because that core fund has increased and that money is lying in there. So, it is not a question of shortage of funds. It is sheer mismanagement, primarily because the main culprit is the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. And AIMS also was set up through the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. See, how is it that there are enough resources for ensuring that AIMS is coming? It is being set up, but no attention is being paid there. And many of the doctors working in BMHRC, I have been recruited by AIMS, AIMS Bhopal. So, otherwise it can be part of AIMS, there is nothing permanent. What are the other solutions that you think can lead to rejuvenating the entire hospital and keeping it intact? Recruitment policy is the key issue. So, we said it should be central health services, recruitment policy, so that it attracts the best talent in the country. It should be on par with the facilities and the standard which exists in AIMS and such premier institutions. See, why is it a hospital which was the best in Bhopal in 2000 and is facing this crisis today? See, a number of other private hospitals have come in Bhopal after that. The other thing is, as I pointed out, there are 5,73,000 victims and we have come to know that out of this, at least 1,70,000 people as victims are going to these hospitals on a regular basis. See, that means there are at least 1,70,000 permanently injured gas victims who need serious treatment. On regular basis. On a regular basis. So, this aspect is being concealed and there is no protocol in place for treating these gas victims. It is all symptomatic treatment. That is why we have been demanding that they must be proper record keeping and monitoring of the health of these gas victims. That is not happening because the health records are in such a bad shape because they want to conceal the magnitude of the problem. Otherwise, why should it take 17 years to set up a computerized record keeping system? Why is it not in place in the last 17 years? So, that is all the time we have for today and as these things proceed, we will be coming back to you to discuss such things. Thanks a lot. Thank you for watching NewsClick.