Health Minister orders inquiry into MNJ hospital affairs

Health Minister T. Rajaiah has directed his officers to inquire into the non-availability of doctors at the MNJ Cancer Hospital in the city following a complaint by senior Congress member Md. Ali Shabbir in the Legislative Council here on Monday.

Mr. Shabbir asked the Minister to accompany him to the hospital straight from the Council to get first-hand information about hardships being faced by patients there.

He raised the issue when the Minister, responding to a query, explained the measures taken to strengthen government hospitals in the city and district headquarters so as to divert 50 per cent of patients under Arogyasri to government hospitals.

Proposal on AIIMS

Earlier, he said that the Centre had sanctioned an All-India Institute of Medical Sciences for Telangana and asked the government to identify 200 acres of land in four places. Mahabubnagar will be one of the four places to be proposed to the Centre, he added.

University of Health Sciences
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He announced that admissions to medical colleges in Telangana for 2015-16 would be held under the aegis of Kaloji Narayana Rao University of Health Sciences at Warangal. A Vice-Chancellor has already been appointed and a budgetary allocation of Rs.5 crore has been made for the university. Other appointments will be made at the earliest.

Priority is being given to improve medical facilities in the agency areas of Warangal, Adilabad, Mahabubnagar and Khammam districts and set up PHCs for every 20,000 people, he said. There were no dengue deaths this year due to precautionary measures and awareness programmes taken up by the government, he said.

Industrial pollution

Earlier, TRS members Karne Prabhakar and Ramulu Naik raised the issue of the alarming level of industrial pollution in Nalgonda, Ranga Reddy and Medak due to bulk drug and sponge iron units. The Pollution Control Board ignored farmers’ complaints about pollution of groundwater and it also did not act on court orders to close down polluting units. The task force committees were more interested in their collection than in taking action, Mr. Naik alleged.