VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has directed officials to make the family doctor concept available from August 15 and it should be implemented across the State in a phased manner. He held a review meeting on the Medical, Health and Family Welfare Department at his camp office in Tadepalli on Wednesday.
Reviewing Aarogyasri, he said steps should be taken to increase the number of treatments offered to beneficiaries under the scheme from August 1. The YSRC government had increased the number of procedures offered under Aarogyasri to 2,446 from 1,059 during the previous TDP regime.
Medical and health personnel should visit the Aarogyasri beneficiary a week after being discharged from hospital to enquire about his/her health condition and get feedback. ACB toll-free numbers should be displayed on vehicles to prevent corruption in Aarogyasri, 108 and 104 services, he asserted and suggested measures for digital video connectivity to village clinics and PHCs.
During a review on COVID-19, the officials informed the Chief Minister that the situation was completely under control in the State and the number of people admitted to hospital with Coronavirus was 69 only.
Jagan directed the officials to speed up the process of administering precautionary dose of COVID vaccine to people aged above 60 years. The officials informed him that 87.15 per cent of people of the age group have already been administered precautionary dose.
He also reviewed the staff strength in government hospitals and appointment of doctors and other medical staff to fill vacant posts. The officials informed him that 40,476 posts have already been filled across the State. The recruitment of staff should be completed by the end of July, he averred.
On implementation of Nadu-Nedu in the Medical and Health Department, works of 14 out of the 16 proposed new medical colleges have begun. Steps are being taken to start the works at Narsipatnam by the end of July, they informed. He said an action plan should be evolved to start classes in new medical colleges at the earliest.
Health Minister Vidadala Rajini, Chief Secretary Sameer Sharma, Medical and Health Principal Secretary M Ravichandra, Health and Family Welfare Director J Nivas, Medical and Health Special Secretary GS Naveen Kumar, Aarogyasri CEO V Vinay Chand, APMSIDC Vice-Chairman and MD D Muralidhar Reddy, APVVP Commissioner V Vinodkumar, Medical and Health Director (Drugs) Ravi Shankar and others were present.