Govt spending 2,500 crore on Aarogyasri: Minister Rajani

Velagapudi (Secretariat): The State government has been spending Rs 2,500 crore every year on Aargoyasri covering 2,047 ailments, said Minister for Medical and Health Vidadala Rajini while reviewing Aarogyasri programme at the Secretariat here on Thursday.

Stating that Aarogyasri has been completely evolved for better to help the poor considerably, the Minister said the YSRCP government is the only government in the country, which is extending Aarogyasri services to 200 hospitals in the neighbouring States of Telangana and Karnataka.

She said every medical procedure that costs more than Rs 1,000 was brought under Aarogyasri. She recalled that the State government had introduced Aarogya Aasara to patients while they are recuperating by paying maximum amount of Rs 5,000 at the rate of Rs 225 per day. Chronic

patients are paid from Rs 3,000 to Rs 10,000 depending upon the disease.

Minister Rajini appealed to field level staff to work wholeheartedly to get good results out of the scheme. They should get feedback from patients on Aarogyasri to make improvements to the system. She suggested officials should take care while giving permissions to the hospitals to implement Aarogyasri.

The officials were instructed to conduct audit regularly to check whether Aarogyasri payments are properly made or not.

The Minister recalled that a tollfree number has been introduced to facilitate the patients to lodge complaints if they face any problem.

Display boards should be prominently placed in the hospitals and also in ward secretariats on the services available under Aarogyasri.

Minister Rajini said that the government is encouraging organisational deliveries and the delivery was also brought under Aarogyasri. Aarogyasri CEO Vinaychand and officials and coordinators of all the districts were present in the meeting.