HYDERABAD: Stating that the Kanti Velugu programme will commence from January 18, Health Minister T Harish Rao on Friday said that the role of ASHA workers and ANMs at the field level will be crucial in ensuring everyone in the State is tested and medicines and spectacles are provided to those who need them.
The State government is keen that Kanti Velugu will be a record-breaking effort that would make it to the Guinness Book of World Records, Harish Rao said. Chairing a review meeting with ASHA workers, ANMS, medical officers, deputy district medical health officers and DMHOs, he made it clear that they should ensure that Kanti Velugu implementation does not cause any disruption in the daily medical services provided in the sub-centres and PHCs. Stating that prevention is better than cure, Harish said: “Sub-centres and PHCs play a vital role in detecting disease at its initial stage and protecting people from serious ailments.
“As part of strengthening the primary health sector, 929 doctors have been replaced in the PHCs. While repairs and construction of sub-centres and PHCs is being done, we are filling up vacant posts of doctors, nurses and other medical staff,” the minister said.
He said that the newly-recruited doctors should work with enthusiasm and dedication and earn the respect of the poor and rural folks. Harish said that due to the efforts of the Telangana Health Department, Maternal Mortality Rate has come down to 43 from 92 in 2014. Similarly, the Infant Mortality Rate has been reduced 23 from 39.
Most of the deliveries in government hospitals took place in Sangareddy district in December, 2022, he said, adding that 86% of total deliveries in the district took place in government hospitals. Sangareddy has become an example for other districts, he said.
Considering sub-centres, more deliveries are taking place in private hospitals in Jagtial, Karimnagar and Suryapet districts, Harish revealed. He directed the DMHO, programme officers and deputy DMHO to visit villages and take steps to increase the percentage of deliveries in government hospitals.
In Nalgonda and Rangareddy, C-sections are mostly being done in private hospitals. The minister directed the officials to take efforts to reduce unnecessary C-section deliveries. Going by the data of the last three months, the situation should change in Nizamabad, Rajanna-Sircilla, Bhadradri-Kothagudem, Suryapet, Komrum-Bheem and Jangaon districts, he said.