Free Mahaprasthanam service from govt. hospitals

Will be available at 11 teaching hospitals from June 20

Mahaprasthanam (hearse, funeral car) service will be available free of cost to the kin of those who pass away in the Government General Hospitals from June 20.

Minister for Health Kamineni Srinivas, addressing the media at the Secretariat here on Friday, said that the relatives of those who died in GGHs were finding it very difficult to find vehicles to shift the mortal remains of their loved ones to burial or cremation grounds. The service would be available in the 11 teaching hospitals besides the Vizianagaram and Eluru Government Hospitals to begin with, the Minister said.

Mothers’ kits

The Minister said that Basavataraka Mothers’ Kits, comprising a muffler, two feeding gowns, a thermos flask and a blanket, would be given to all women who delivered babies in the government hospitals from July 1.

Efforts were being made to introduce family medicine as a speciality in the medical colleges of Andhra Pradesh, he said.

About transfers in the Health Department, he said Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu had been requested to allow some extra time as the software needed for processing the applications and counselling was being created.

Retirement age

He said the retirement age of doctors with post-graduate degrees had been increased to 63 years to strengthen the institutions in the State and not to benefit a few individuals as it was being alleged, the Minister added.