“The work in nearly 40 taluk-level hospitals is almost completed, but due to delay in payment, it was not handed over or was left at final stage of completion,” said an official with the Health department, who requested anonymity. “All these hospitals cannot be said to be upgraded unless the construction work is completed,” he added.

The change in the government after the 2007 Assembly Elections has led to the confusion amounting to delay in payments to the contractors, said a medical officer.
 
“There was some problem with the payment from the state government but now the issue has been sorted out,” said Shivakumar B S, Superintending Engineer of the Karnataka State Health Reform and Development Project. According to replies received to requests made under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, the construction of each hospital costs approximately Rs 2 crore.
 
“We did not hand over the hospitals to the government because they were not paying money,” said an employee of a private construction company, who did not want his identity to be revealed. This company has contracts for constructing a large number of taluk hospitals.

The Director of Health and Family Welfare was unavailable for comment on the issue of delay in payment despite several attempts and repeated phone calls.

Investigation by IIJNM students on their visits to these taluks has revealed that work was stalled in some taluks of Tumkur, Kolar, Chitradurga and other districts.

In Belgaum, for instance, the building of taluk hospital at Khanapur was handed over to the government after six months of its completion. “The newly constructed portion of the hospital building was locked and could not be used because of non-payment of funds by the state government,” said V D Dange, district health officer of Belgaum. Similar is the case in Raibag taluk of Belgaum. The newly constructed portion remained locked and unused for nearly four months owing to non-payment, added Dange.

There are also some hospitals where the construction work was almost complete, but due to delay in payment the work was held up.

After a personal inspection of the taluk hospital in Pavagada, Tumkur, it was found that the building was near completion. But no work had been done for six months said a clerk at the hospital. The work had started in 2007, but due to non-payment the contractor has stopped the work in final stage said Manjunath V S, second division clerk at Pavagada taluk hospital. He said that the hospital has ordered equipment for upgrading it to a 100-bed facility, but unless the construction is completed and the building handed over, it is of no use.

Since the buildings are not being handed over in the above mentioned hospitals, poor people who generally visit government health centers for their health problems are denied access to better health facilities. This becomes even more significant as taluk hospitals are known as First Referral Units (FRUs), where critical cases are referred to them by primary health centers.

“We stopped going to the taluk hospital anymore, as every time we go there they refer us to private hospitals saying that we don’t have enough facilities” said Shridhar K, a resident of Pavagada.

In another instance the construction work at Bhadravathi TLH, Shimoga District was stalled for more than three months due to the funds issue. “The delay was due to some confusion over funds between officials and contractor,” said Nagaraju K, a resident who lives next to the hospital. The work started in early 2008 and was completed and inaugurated in the month of February this year.

Similar is the case of hospitals in Bidar, which has been declared as one of the most backward districts. Work had started on three TLHs in 2007, but has not been completed even today.