AP to digitise citizens’ health records from Jan 1

Amaravati: Andhra Pradesh will begin digitising citizens’ health records from January 1 as part of the state-wide rollout of the Sanjeevani healthcare initiative, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu announced on Saturday, pitching technology as the key to improving access to medical services.

Accompanied by Union Health Minister J P Nadda, the Chief Minister inaugurated a Critical Care Block and Integrated Public Health Laboratory at the Old Government Hospital in Vijayawada.

The two leaders subsequently virtually launched 10 Critical Care Blocks and 12 Integrated Public Health Laboratories established across the State at a cost of Rs 249 crore.

The new facilities add 500 critical-care beds and provide advanced operation theatres and ultrasound services besides cardiology, nephrology, neurology, and neurosurgery facilities.

The government said the expansion would reduce the need for poor and middle-class families to travel long distances for specialised emergency treatment.

Chandrababu said the state was seeking to combine modern technology with traditional healthcare practices to build a healthier society. He credited the Centre with expanding medical education and healthcare infrastructure, observing that medical seats nationally had more than doubled from around 51,000. He cited AIIMS Mangalagiri, Jan Aushadhi Kendras and ABHA health cards as examples of the Centre’s healthcare initiatives.

Naidu said Andhra Pradesh was emerging as a pharmaceutical and medical-device hub, with the MedTech Park supporting device manufacturing. He urged people to treat food as medicine and adopt yoga, pranayama, and meditation alongside modern healthcare.

The Chief Minister made a fresh pitch for central backing for Amaravati’s emerging technology ecosystem, requesting Nadda to accord national project status to the proposed Quantum Bio Valley. He announced that the country’s first quantum computer would be launched in Amaravati.

Chandrababu said youth were being trained in artificial intelligence and projected Amaravati as a future technology hub. He attributed the state’s development push to coordination between the Centre and state government under the “double-engine” model and said the objective was to build a “Healthy, wealthy and happy Andhra Pradesh.”

Health Minister Y Satya Kumar Yadav, and BJP AP president P V N Madhav attended the programme.

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