Nitish's eye surgery in Delhi is mockery of Bihar's health infrastructure

This time, Nitish Kumar has triggered a spark in Bihar as people are asking questions about how bad is the health infrastructure in the state that the Chief Minister has to visit another state for cataract surgery, writes ETV Bharat Bihar Bureau Chief Amit Bhelari.

Patna:Chief Minister Nitish Kumar's visit to the national capital for the surgery of his eyes has given an opportunity to the opposition in Bihar to take a dig at him. Not only the opposition, even the experts feel that his visit has exposed the deteriorating health infrastructure in the state. Time and again, the health department of Bihar remains in the limelight due to its faulty behaviour and decision. Bihar always remains on top as far as any negative news was concerned.

On Thursday, RJD supremo Lalu Prasad eldest son Tej Pratap Yadav and daughter Rohini Acharya had taken a jibe on Nitish claiming that his visit to the national capital revealed the poor condition of medical facilities of the state. "Nitish Kumar left Bihar and went to Delhi for the treatment of his eyes. He is highlighting his own failure on the collapsed health infrastructure of Bihar," Acharya tweeted on Thursday.

Read:|I came Delhi for eye treatment not for Cabinet discussion, says Bihar CM

Similarly, Tej Pratap the former health minister of Bihar tweeted, "Nitish Kumar is the Chief Minister of Bihar for the last 16 years but he does not have faith in the state health infrastructure and the treatment of doctors." According to a WHO report, there is an acute shortage of doctors and nurses in Bihar. There is a shortage of 60 per cent doctors whereas nurses shortage is more than doctors. On the national level if the average is 220 doctors and nurses every one lakh, in Bihar it's just 20.

Congress MLC Sameer Kumar Singh mocked Nitish's Delhi visit and said, “His visit has proved that there are no competent doctors for eyes in Bihar. He should have gone to PMCH for the treatment rather than visiting Delhi." In Bihar, there are around 900 eye specialists and several other good hospitals like PMCH and IGIMS. In fact, in Rajendra Nagar, there is a dedicated hospital for eyes and many other private hospitals for the same purpose.

Another Congress spokesperson Kuntal Krishna said, “Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has been very honest to himself. When it came to him he preferred to remain very safe. He did not rely on the dubious and risky so-called super specialised facilities in Bihar. Despite the tall claims of his government regarding world-class health infrastructure he did not prefer to get his eyes treated in Bihar. Since he has been honest with himself, it is high time for Nitish to introspect. It has been 16 years, will Nitish Ji be honest to tell us what he did in the health sector for so long?”

In the second wave of Covid-19, Bihar received criticism for a poor healthcare system. Many primary health centres of the states were found in a dilapidated condition and many have turned into the cattle shed. Senior RJD leader and former speaker Uday Narayan Choudhary said that the health system in Bihar is hollow. “Good doctors and good infrastructure are two different things. There are good doctors but there is no good infrastructure. Forget the world-class, the hospital of Bihar is not even third class.”

Read:|Nitish Kumar likely to meet PM Modi during his Delhi visit

Ever since Nitish Kumar has gone to Delhi, the issue has been the talking point in the state capital apart from the talk related to the expansion of the Union Cabinet. On the other hand, JDU medical cell president Dr Sunil Singh said, “Bihar has both national and international level doctors for the eyes. Every person has the right to choose their own advocate and doctor. I do not think there should be any politics over this issue and if the opposition is doing so it means they do not have any other issue to discuss.”

However, political experts differ from the point of the JDU leader and claimed that if Nitish would have got his eyes treated in Bihar, it would have made healthcare more trustworthy for the people.

“The Chinese communist revolutionary Mao Tse-Tung never went outside China for any treatment because he felt that if we cannot create good health infrastructure how can you make the people believe that your own system is good enough. Cataract is a minor operation in which you change the lens. In Patna, there are good hospitals like AIIMS and IGIMS but over here the question is trust and faith. Delhi's AIIMS suits Nitish Kumar because he does not trust his own health system. It also proves that many high-class people go outside the state for small treatment," said Dr Sanjay Kumar, Patna based political expert.

He further said, “Former Bihar CM late Bhagwat Jha Azad used to visit AIIMS where his younger son Rajvardhan Azad was there as an eye specialist. At that time, people used to say that as being a Bihari, the CM was getting treatment from a Bihari doctor. If he has gone to Delhi only for the cataract then the question would be raised. If there is any other complication then CM is the right person to speak to. Only he can tell why he considered Delhi safer than Bihar for the treatment. However, I must say that it is a mockery of Bihar health infrastructure if he has visited just for cataract surgery.”

Nitish went through the successful cataract surgery at Delhi AIIMS on Thursday. The surgery was conducted under the supervision of Dr Jeewan Singh Titiyal a renowned ophthalmologist. Soon after the surgery, Nitish was discharged. Earlier Bihar CM has also visited Dr Alok Thakkar, another finest ENT doctor at AIIMS.

Read:|Nitish ridiculed for visiting Delhi for treatment