Kolkata: In an effort to reach out to healthcare professionals in Kolkata, BJP's national president and Union health minister J P Nadda will meet doctors in the city on Thursday. Nearly 800 doctors are likely to attend the interactive session at a venue near Science City.
Nadda will also hold meetings with state BJP's key functionaries and party workers to take stock of organizational preparedness.
While Nadda has held several meetings with party functionaries, workers and intellectuals in Bengal, he has not met doctors from the state through a separate platform. According to Bengal BJP sources, while they had made an initial arrangement for interactions with around 250 doctors, the response was overwhelming and around 800 doctors have expressed willingness to talk to Nadda.
The state's healthcare infrastructure will be the focal point of the talks. "Nadda will talk to the doctors and try to find out the lacunae in infrastructure. Health is a state subject and the Centre does not have much role to play here. However, he will take notes and try to address the issues as much as possible," said Indranil Khan, state president of Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha.
"The central govt released a grant of more than Rs 151 crore last year. The grant was to support the diagnostic infrastructure at primary healthcare facilities. There are many such projects which are funded by the Centre and Nadda, being the Union minister for health, wants to assess how effectively the money is being spent," said a Bengal BJP neta.
Khan added that the "implementation of Ayushman Bharat and the state's apathy towards it" would also be discussed. "Nadda will take feedback from doctors on areas where the Centre can improve. We have seen instances of fake medicines and fake vaccines in the state. Safety and security of doctors, including the RG Kar Medical College incident, would be one of the key issues to be discussed at the interactive session," said Khan.
"If given an opportunity, we will broach the Ayushman Bharat issue and the collapsing health system in the state while listening to what message Nadda gives to the medical community," said oncologist Sharadwat Mukherjee.