VIJAYAWADA: Krishna district registered the lowest number of institutional deliveries at government hospitals in the State. The total percentage of institutional deliveries in the district between 2018 and 2019 was 99.99. However, official records say only 29.63 per cent of deliveries are conducted at the government hospitals. District officials have been instructed to take effective measures to increase the number.
Speaking to TNIE, Krishna district DMHO, Dr I Ramesh, said, “We have found that the number of deliveries at government hospitals is quite less. We are developing hospitals to improve the services”.
“All the hospitals have senior doctors and specialists. It is just the public perception that the government hospitals are not at par with private ones, that needs to change and we are working on it,” the DMHO added.
Currently, Krishna district has two teaching government hospitals, one in Vijayawada and the other in Machilipatnam. Apart from the teaching hospitals, there are district and area hospitals working under the Vaidya Vidhana Parishad as well, but almost zero deliveries took place every month, at these hospitals.
It has become a common sight that two patients are accommodated on a single bed in the Obstetrics and Gynaecology department in almost all government hospitals.
Despite the gradual rise in the number of patients in the past few years, no extra beds have been officially sanctioned. In the old Government General Hospital Vijayawada, about 30 admissions took place every day in the Gynaecology department alone and the number of deliveries have increased.
In the year 2018, the hospital administered 7,595 deliveries and in 2019, by the end of June, the number was close to 4,000. Despite these many admissions and deliveries, the total number of beds remained at 120 to 150 in the various government hospitals.
The State government has started offering free services such as Talli Bidda express and mother and baby kits. But owing to several loopholes in the system and the lack of facilities, patients are going to private hospitals for deliveries.
Vizag tops at 67.74 per cent
Visakhapatnam tops the Institutional deliveries with 67.74 (in government hospitals) but when it comes to total institutional deliveries, it is 94.71 per cent only. The overall deliveries in government hospitals in the state is 45.40 per cent while the institutional deliveries in the state is 98.31 per cent.