HYDERABAD: The health department received a generous allocation of Rs 1000 crores towards setting up new medical colleges in each district. The Finance Minister T Harish Rao in his address at the Telangana Assembly said the state has set a goal to set up at least one medical college in each district by 2023.
“The Chief Minister has decided that all the districts of the state will have Government Medical Colleges. These would be established over the next two years. This calendar year, we are going to start eight new medical colleges at Asifabad, Bhupalpally, Vikarabad, Sircilla, Jangaon, Kamareddy, Karimnagar and Khammam,” announced Harish Rao, who is also the Health Minister.
He further added that in 2023, another eight medical colleges in Medak, Medchal, Rangareddy, Mulugu, Warangal, Narayanpet, Gadwal and Yadadri would come up.
Over and above these, eight colleges have already been sanctioned at Mancherial, Ramagundam, Jagtial, Wanaparthy, Nagarkurnool, Mahbubabad, Kothagudem and Sangreddy and would start functioning next year, added the Finance Minister.
He said these colleges were possible due to the formation of the state of Telangana under Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao. “There were only three government medical colleges which were established in the Telangana region during the 60 years rule of the combined state. Osmania and Gandhi Hospital were established even before the combined state. The TRS government in the last seven-and-a-half years has established twelve new medical colleges taking the total number of these to 17,” he said.
Special focus on primary health within urban centres
The Finance Minister also announced 2000 beds at Nizam's Institute of Medical Science which will take the total number of beds to 3489 in the hospital.
He said this will take the total number of additional beds to 6000 in and around Hyderabad as previously in May 2021, the government had announced plans to set up four hospitals at Gachibowli, LB Nagar, Alwal and Erragadda. These institutions will collectively be known as Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences (TIMS) which will have 4000 beds.
Apart from this push for better healthcare at tertiary and secondary level, the government is also focusing on primary healthcare by means of Basti Dawakhanas. The FM announced that the goal set by the Chief Minister was to have 350 Basti Dawakhanas in Hyderabad, of which currently 256 are currently functioning.
“This year, 94 new Basti Dawakhanas will be set up in the rest of the municipalities in HMDA limit and another 60 such centres will be planned in other municipal corporations and municipalities in the rest of the state,” added Rao.