Top priority to extending quality medicare to poor, says CM Jagan

Amaravati: Asserting that many revolutionary steps have been taken in the health sector, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has said that his government values human lives and hence top-class medical services were made available to the poor for the last two-and-a-half years.

The State government also waged an effective battle against the pandemic Covid-19, Jagan said while taking part in a short discussion in the State Assembly on Thursday.

Listing out various initiatives taken up by the government in the last two-and-a-half years, the Chief Minister stated that YSR Aarogyasri scope has been widened by increasing the income limit to Rs 5 lakh covering 95 per cent of the State population and offering super specialty services from over 130 empanelled hospitals in cities like Hyderabad, Chennai, and Bangalore.

"Although the previous government tried to restrain the expenditures and left unpaid bills of Rs 680 crore to the network hospitals, we cleared all those arrears and even included expensive surgeries like bone-marrow transplantation, heart transplant, cochlear implants under Aarogyasri. In the last 29 months, almost Rs 4,000 crore was spent on Aarogyasri and brought 2,466 procedures under the scheme," he said.

He said that 16 new teaching hospitals were being set up in the State besides revamping the existing 11 medical colleges, ensuring that every Parliamentary constituency has one teaching hospital, one nursing college, and a 500-bed super-specialty hospital. Even the tribal areas like Paderu will have a teaching hospital and five other ITDAs are going to have super specialty medical services. Besides these, the State government is taking measures to strengthen the health sector from village-level by developing 10,032 YSR Village Clinics, 560 Urban Health Clinics, 1321 PHCs, 52 Area Hospitals and 191 CHCs at a cost of Rs 16,255 crore.

The Chief Minister stated that the government was revamping all government hospitals across the State and equipping them with best infrastructure, along with WHO and GMP standard medicines. He said that steps were being taken to strengthen the private institutions in the health sector by inviting them to set up super-specialty hospitals in the State and allocate 50 per cent beds to Aarogyasri, as government would provide land and offer complete support.

For the first time ever, the State has brought in YSR Aarogya Asara, paying up to Rs 5,000 to patients who had undergone surgery to support them during the recovery period and further providing monthly pensions ranging from Rs 3000-10000 to people suffering from chronic ailments.

The Chief Minister said 15,000 ANMs were recruited at the village secretariat level and soon another 14,788 posts will be filled by February 2022.

Pointing out that the government was laying special focus on the health of kids, he said that three exclusive hospitals for children were being set up for advanced treatment and specialty services in addition to the existing hospital in Tirupati.

Speaking on Covid-19, the Chief Minister affirmed that 100 per cent vaccination for all those above 18 years would be completed by March 2022, and so far 3.4 crore have been administered with single-dose and 2.39 crore people received both the doses. The government had spent Rs 3,648 crore on Covid treatment alone to lessen the burden on the people.

Earlier, Initiating the short discussion on health sector, Minister Alla Kali Krishna Srinivas (Nani) said that the State government has taken public health care to the next level with revolutionary measures right from the YSR Aarogyasri scheme to effectively containing Covid-19 in the State. He explained in detail various welfare schemes and measures being taken for strengthening the health care system in the State.