VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has directed the health department officials to strive to achieve the targets, taking them as a challenge. Chairing the maiden review meeting after the reconstitution of the State cabinet on Tuesday, Jagan said as a chief minister he sets targets and it is for the officials and staff to own up the responsibility to achieve them. “They should take it as a challenge and work efficiently to bring about the desired change and achieve the set goals,” he asserted
The Chief Minister mooted cash awards for Arogya Mitras on the lines of village/ward volunteers, which will encourage them to perform better. Officials were instructed to select a day in a year for the programme. He also proposed to increase medical procedures under Aarogyasri, if necessary, to cater to the health needs of a large number of people. The Chief Minister said revolutionary changes were brought in education, health, agriculture and housing by his government.
“In case of the health sector, like never before in the history of the State, thousands of posts were filled and thousands of crores was spent to revamp infrastructure. From village clinics to teaching hospitals, under Nadu-Nedu, several crucial changes were made to improve the sector as a whole. The government ensured that there are no pending bills in the Aarogyasri scheme, increased the number of medical procedures under it, and decided to set up 16 teaching hospitals and provide medicines of WHO and GMP standards in government hospitals,” Jagan explained.
Reviewing the progress of Nadu-Nedu works, construction of village and ward clinics, besides medical colleges, the Chief Minister asked the officials not to compromise on the quality and facilities. He directed them to begin the construction works of medical colleges, which are yet to be grounded, by May 15.
The officials were asked to make every effort to get the needed permissions form the Centre for the teaching hospitals. Jagan was apprised of the progress in the works pertaining to kidney hospital in Palasa, super speciality hospital in Kadapa and a super speciality hospital in tribal areas. They said out of 16 proposed new medical colleges in the State, construction of six is going on at a brisk pace.
Earlier, he inspected the model of information kiosks to be set up in Aarogyasri hospitals, and directed the officials to set up signboards in the hospitals for easy access. Minister for Medical and Health V Rajani, Chief Secretary Sameer Sharma, R&B Chief Secretary MT Krishna Babu, Medical and Health Principal Secretary Muddada Ravichandra, Aarogyasri CEO V Vinay Chand, APMSIDC Vice-Chairman and MD D Muralidhar Reddy and other officials were present.
Fill up vacancies in health dept by May-end: CM
Officials were directed to fill up vacancies in the health department by the end of May. The Chief Minister said the purpose of filling up the vacancies and recruitment of doctors in large numbers is to ensure timely treatment to people visiting government hospitals. The decision to increase the salaries of the doctors was taken to ensure better services for the people. For this reason, the government doctors were barred from doing private practice, the Chief Minister said