HYDERABAD: Stating that the new Osmania Hospital, TIMS hospitals at Alwal and LB Nagar and the super-speciality hospital at Warangal would be completed by December 7, 2027, Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy inaugurated the Marri Chenna Reddy Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences (TIMS) Hospital at Sanathnagar on Monday along with Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and Ministers C Damodar Rajanarasimha, Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and Ponnam Prabhakar.
The chief minister said that the government would inaugurate one of these hospitals every month until then.
Addressing the gathering later, he said the government was giving priority to the health and education sectors. He advised nurses and paramedical staff to learn German, Japanese and South Korean, saying there were lakhs of jobs in these countries.
He said the government had recruited around 16,000 staff in the health department and was treating spending on health and education as an investment rather than expenditure.
“In the last 32 months, this government has spent `2,700 crore under Aarogyasri scheme and `2,526 crore under the CMRF, totalling `5,226 crore. No previous government spent so much on the health of poor people. This government allocated an average of `13,000 crore for the Health department every year in the Budget. Since coming to power, we have spent `21,800 crore on public health,” he said.
CM hints at incentives for govt doctors
Noting that healthcare and education had become increasingly expensive, he said: “The situation has arisen where people have to sell their kidneys to meet the cost of treatment in corporate hospitals. That is why the government is focusing on developing public health infrastructure for poor people.”
The chief minister also suggested that the Health minister ask government doctors, particularly specialists, to work additional hours. “Let us give incentives to doctors who perform surgeries.
If we don’t give incentives, they will work in private hospitals after their duty hours,” he said. Revanth criticised the previous BRS government for not allocating funds for the TIMS hospitals at Sanathnagar, Alwal and LB Nagar despite laying their foundation stones.
“The previous government laid foundation stones for the construction of TIMS hospitals at Sanathnagar, Alwal and LB Nagar, but forgot to allocate funds for their construction. That is why, after we came to power, we expedited their construction by taking them up on priority. If all these hospitals are completed, around 10,000 beds will become available for poor people,” he said.
Responding to BRS working president KT Rama Rao’s claim that the BRS government had constructed the Sanathnagar TIMS and the Congress government was only inaugurating it, Revanth said: “Didn’t you find time in 10 years of rule to cut the ribbon? Why did the KCR family not think about the health of poor people? Did KCR delay constructing a farmhouse on 1,000 acres, KTR at Janwada on 100 acres, Harish Rao at Moinabad on 50 acres and K Kavitha at Shankarpally on 25 acres? But why did they delay constructing hospitals for poor people?”
“Instead of performing occult rituals, if they do ‘Tapassu’ in the Nallamala forest for two years or spend `10 crore in each constituency from their ill-gotten money, they might be cleansed of their sins,” he said.