More hospitals, diagnostic services to be set up in Telangana: Minister

Specialist services being made available to patients, says Eatala

Telangana State has succeeded in bringing down the maternal mortality rate following improvement of basic facilities in the health sector, said Health Minister Eatala Rajender.

The government has intensified efforts to upgrade the government hospitals and health centres and making specialists and timely services available to the patients. The MMR rate came down from 81 deaths for one lakh live births to 76 and efforts were on to further improve the rate. There is also improvement in the infant mortality rate.

The government approved upgrading of area hospitals into district hospitals in nine districts — Gadwal, Mahabubabad, Narayanpet, Nirmal, Asifabad, Narsampet, Bhupalapalli, Sircilla and Mulug — and initiated work with an outlay of ₹214.13 crore.

Disclosing this at a press conference held at Arogyasri Trust office here on Friday, Mr. Rajender said facilities would be upgraded at Mother and Child Care Centre at Gandhi Hospital and the bed strength would be increased to 200 and in the first phase ₹30 crore has been sanctioned. The government approved ₹1.5 crore for setting up burns wards in three district hospitals of Wanaparthy, Nagarkurnool and Gajwel. A fund of ₹10 crore would be sanctioned to avail the services of specialists on a temporary basis, he said.

The Minister disclosed that approval has been given for the development of 20 Telangana Diagnostic Hubs with ₹24 crore in Nagarkurnool, Mahabubnagar, Gadwal, Vikarabad, Nizamabad, Sangareddy, Medak, Nalgonda, Suryapet, Jangaon, Mahabubabad, Khammam, Kothagudem, Karimnagar, Jagtial, Adilabad, Nirmal, Asifabad, Siddipet and Mulug. Central government would also extend its cooperation for extending the above services, he said.

Mr. Rajender also said that their priorities were to increase number of medical colleges and doctors and the government also decided to set up hospitals on the highways. The number of trauma care centres would also be increased and 11 trauma care centres would be set up in teaching hospitals across the State. Super speciality hospitals would soon come up in Warangal and Adilabad districts.

Arogyasri scheme under implementation in the State was better than the Centre’s Ayushman Bharat scheme and Chief Minister’s objective was to extend quality medical care to the poor, he said. Irrespective of funds constraint, all the works proposed by the Medical and Health Department would be completed and medical care would be provided to people as promised, he said.