Damodar prods babus to ramp up infra in new med colleges in State

Hyderabad: Health Minister C Damodar Raja Narsimha on Wednesday asked officials to give top priority to the basic infrastructure in the new medical colleges so as to ensure the classes start with the start of the new academic year.

The Health Minister on Wednesday had a review meeting with the officials on various issues here at Aarogyasri Trust office. The Minister said that the construction work of medical colleges should be completed at the earliest and directed the officials to ensure all necessary infrastructure is in place in the new medical colleges so that classes can start in the next academic year. He said that the government has given top priority to the creation of basic facilities in medical colleges. The officials briefed the Minister on the progress of the construction work of 25 medical colleges and their affiliated teaching hospitals set up in three phases in 2022, 2023, and 2024. The Minister directed the officials to complete all important works as quickly as possible before the monsoon season. The meeting discussed the performance of diagnostic equipment in hospitals. He ordered that the training responsibilities be handed over to the Biomedical Engineering Department at NIMS.

Reviewing the issue of absence of the staff in the hospitals, Raja Narsimha warned that doctors and medical staff must be punctual and that they will not be spared if they neglect their duties. Starting from ASHA workers to principals in teaching hospitals, everyone must perform their duties properly, he said, warning that strict action would be taken if absent from duty.

The Minister said that doctors and staff should work to increase trust in government hospitals. He expressed dissatisfaction over the absence of doctors from duty without prior notice at Gandhi Hospital. He said that doctors should act responsibly and the medical staff should also be responsible after seeing them. The Minister instructed DME Narendra Kumar to pay more attention to attendance monitoring in all medical colleges and hospitals. It was suggested that a senior professor be appointed as a nodal officer in each college for attendance monitoring. He said that surprise inspections in hospitals would continue.

Raja Narsimha reviewed the performance of Jeevan Daan. The Minister suggested increasing the number of organ transplants in government hospitals and providing organ transplant treatment to as many patients as possible under Arogyasri. He directed Medical Corporation MD Hemant to complete the work of the Organ Transplantation Centre in Gandhi at the earliest.