VIJAYAWADA: Reiterating that the State government is committed to the betterment of medical and health infrastructure and services in the State, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy said they give utmost importance to human life.
In his concluding remarks during a short discussion on ‘health’ in the State Assembly on Thursday, the Chief Minister said when the situation pertaining to the medical and health sector in the State before two-and-a-half years and today is compared, a vast difference could be witnessed. He said giving the highest priority to the health and welfare of the people in the state, the government initiated several revolutionary measures to bring about a sea change in the sector.
The Chief Minister stated that YSR Aarogyasri scope has been widened by increasing the income limit to Rs 5 lakh covering 95 per cent of the State population and offering super specialty services from over 130 empanelled hospitals in cities like Hyderabad, Chennai, and Bangalore.
“The previous government left unpaid bills of Rs 680 crore under the scheme to the network hospitals, but we cleared all those arrears and even included expensive surgeries like bone-marrow transplantation, heart transplant, cochlear implants under the Aarogyasri. In the last 29 months, almost Rs 4,000 crore was spent on Aarogyasri and 2,466 procedures were brought under the scheme,” the Chief Minister explained.
Jagan said 16 new teaching hospitals were being set up in the State besides revamping the existing 11 medical colleges. The tribal areas like Paderu will have a teaching hospital and five other mulit-disciplinary hospitals will come up under the purview of ITDAs. Besides these, the State government is developing 10,032 YSR Village Clinics, 560 Urban Health Clinics, 1321 PHCs, 52 Area Hospitals, 191 CHCs at a cost of Rs 16,255 crore.
The government was revamping all government hospitals across the State. Steps were being taken to strengthen the private institutions in the health sector by inviting them to set up super-specialty hospitals in the State (50% beds under arogyasri).
For the first time, the State has brought in YSR Aarogya Asara, paying up to Rs 5,000 to patients who had undergone surgery. The government was also providing monthly pensions ranging from Rs 3000-Rs 10000 to people suffering from chronic ailments.
Since the inception of the government, 9,712 posts have been filled in addition to appointing 15,000 ANMs at the secretariat level and 14,788 posts will be filled by February 2022. That is, a total of 40,000 posts were being filled in the medical and health sector.
The Chief Minister said steps have been taken to establish three exclusive hospitals for children to avail advanced treatments and specialty services in three regions of the state, besides Sri Padmavati Child Heart Centre in Tirupati, which was inaugurated by him recently.
“The government also launched YSR Kanti Velugu providing free treatment for eye problems. So far, 66 lakh school students have been screened, 1.58 lakh were provided free eyewear and 300 children underwent surgeries. Similarly, 14.28 lakh adults were screened, 7.83 lakh glasses were given and 1.13 lakh people underwent surgeries,” Jagan explained.