Patna, May 30: The Bihar government is planning to add 10,000 more beds to state-run hospitals by the end of the current financial year.

The decision was taken at a health department meeting today held to prioritise initiatives in the health sector across the state.

At present, the bed strength of government hospitals stands at 24,000 in the state. According to ideal standards, Bihar should have 2 lakh beds in the hospitals.

“According to World Health Organisation standards, there should be a hospital bed for every 500 people, while the population to bed ratio in Bihar is 50,000:1, including private hospitals and nursing homes. We want to reduce the gap to some extent immediately,” health department principal secretary Amarjeet Sinha said.

The government is planning to convert 477 additional primary health centres into 24x7 hospitals with indoor facilities while 6- and 12-bed hospitals will be augmented into 30-bed facilities by March next year.

Other decisions taken at the meeting included opening of intensive care units in district hospitals and construction of residential quarters for doctors and support staff in hospitals at the block-level.

The health department, which was granted with the budgetary demand of Rs 3,057.97 crore for 2012-13, is primarily aiming to revive the fortune of sick hospitals across Bihar in current fiscal.

In the current fiscal, the state aims to spend Rs 627.06 crore under planned heads and Rs 2,058.77 crore under non-plan heads, while Rs 372.14 will be spent under centrally sponsored health schemes.

Apart from these, the state will also receive a sum of about Rs 1,100 crore under national rural health mission (NRHM).

“With Bihar State Medical Services and Infrastructure Corporation functional now, there is more emphasis on putting up necessary physical infrastructure for the two upcoming medical colleges and converting 399 six-bedded primary health centres (PHCs) into 30-bed hospitals at the earliest,” another senior official of the department said.

“In the current fiscal, we have earmarked Rs 300 crore for health schemes which will be spent as 15 per cent share in the NRHM, while Rs 357.06 crore will be spent on constructing medical colleges at Bettiah and Madhepura,” he added.

The state government also wants to provide surgical facilities at more government hospitals.