HYDERABAD: As Telangana prepares to fill vacant posts in various government departments, the demand for a dedicated police force for hospitals has risen within the medical fraternity. The Healthcare Reforms Doctors Association (HRDA), on Tuesday, urged DGP Mahendar Reddy to recruit a dedicated Special Protection Force for various teaching hospitals in the state.
The association noted that this was necessary as per a 2019 GO, which had given sanction for creation of 164 posts under the Director-General of Telangana State Special Protection Force (TSSPF) for deployment in various government teaching hospitals/district medical units. These positions included inspectors, sub inspectors and constables to man the hospital premises from untoward activities.
“Keeping in view the Covid pandemic, the assaults on healthcare workers, and the possibility of a third wave, we request you to initiate the recruitment process at the earliest and enforce GO 103,” said the HRDA to the DGP.
Meanwhile, PG students, who have often been attacked, say a delay of 18 months for implementing the GO is not acceptable. “Except in Niloufer Hospital, no other hospital in the state has a Special Protection Force. In Gandhi Hospital, after repeated attacks, we had Hyderabad City Police on each floor from April, 2020. However, when non-Covid services opened, they restricted their presence to the Covid ward only. There are 15 emergency units in the hospital where conflict issues can occur and we need at least one police personnel there to prevent attacks,” said Dr Lohith Reddy, a final-year PG student at Gandhi Hospital.
Sputnik V reaches 50 cities in India
Dr Reddy’s Laboratories, which is conducting the rollout of Sputnik V vaccine in India via soft-launch, announced they taken the vaccine to nearly 50 cities and towns in India. The company began the exercises on May 14 from Hyderabad, after which it was extended to more places in the country. Dr Reddy’s further issued a statement that in the coming weeks, the commercial rollout will take place and the work on commercial launch towards ramp up of production have been put on hold.
Telangana adds 767 cases, 848 patients recover
Telangana reported 767 Covid cases on Tuesday. The State conducted 1.18Lakh tests to detect these. Khammam, for the second consecutive day, had more cases than GHMC limits with 84 infections as compared to 77 in GHMC. Districts like Mancherial (65), Pedappali ( 59) and Nalgonda (51) are also seeing high cases. Meanwhile, 848 individuals recovered on the same day and the active cases were at 10,064 cases. The State saw 3 new deaths taking the toll to 3,738.