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Healthcare delivery in for major push in TS
Highlights
The Telangana government is the first State to develop a hospital–specific budget and it increased the budgetary support to 56 per cent from 40 per cent among all the State governments. It is focussing mainly on enhancing rural health system from insurance to assurance. It is also looking at mobile healthcare delivery in order to take healthcare to the doorsteps of the rural and the slum population.
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The Telangana government is the first State to develop a hospital–specific budget and it increased the budgetary support to 56 per cent from 40 per cent among all the State governments. It is focussing mainly on enhancing rural health system from insurance to assurance. It is also looking at mobile healthcare delivery in order to take healthcare to the doorsteps of the rural and the slum population.At present, Telangana has 10 districts. Once the State forms 14 new districts, then each district is envisaged to have a state-of–the-art healthcare mechanism in place. The State government is looking at convergence of services and education as part of its improvement practices. As in a hub-and-spokes model, the government is looking at decentralisation of medical services with ‘brand Hyderabad’ as a focal point. The government is also planning to ensure sufficient budget allocations to government hospitals in 2016-17 budget..
While encouraging private healthcare sector, the government is keen to ensure that the public healthcare system is also beefed up so that the rural and the downtrodden get the best healthcare facilities.
It has already drafted proposals for installing one urban primary health centre for every 50,000 population for improving accessibility and availability of healthcare services and one community health centre for every two lakh population. It also proposes one auxiliary nursing midwife (ANM) for every 10,000 population, one Accredited Social Health Activist (ASHA) for every 1000 to 2000 slum population and one Mahila Arogya Samiti for 100-150 households in the State.
There are 153 corporate hospitals in the State, having a total bed strength of 21,891, of which there are 5,473 Aarogyasri beds as per statistics available. The State has 73 government hospitals with 14,600 beds of which 3,650 are Aarogyasri beds. As Hyderabad witnesses large patient migration, the government is taking up upgradation of the existing government hospitals by inclusion of more Aarogyasri beds.
Besides, the Telangana government has launched India’s first dedicated healthcare app to education people on health-related issues, locate healthcare centres and also empower citizens to track and record their health data. Another initiative is ‘e-arogyam’, an online e-medicine centre in all the government hospitals to provide quality healthcare services to poor patients in rural areas. These e-arogyam health centres will be linked to district hospitals online to provide 24-hour medical services to the people. Using this platform, the doctors at district hospitals can provide suggestions and help to the healthcare staff at the rural primary healthcare centres (PHCs) and community healthcare centres (CHCs).
About 22 per cent of total population i.e. 77 lakh in Hyderabad and the surrounding Ranga Reddy district have access to primary, secondary and tertiary care round-the-clock within an hour. They are served by 2,400 specialists and 640 super specialists of various categories belonging to both government and private sector in addition to the doctors with basic qualification of MBBS.
In contrast, approximately 1.86 crore people, constituting 52 per cent of the total population, are living in 8100 villages. Access to qualified primary healthcare is beyond 5-10 km from the place of residence for 57 lakh population, and it is farther than 10 km for around 92 lakh population. They have to depend on the services of ANMs in the sub-centres for qualified care. In reality, this 1.86 crore population is dependent on local, uncertified, long-standing village practitioners of allopathic care. Approximately, there is one such practitioner for every 1000 population, and 80 per cent of them are matriculate.
The government is at present contemplating establishment of area hospitals with 100 beds, covering an area of 100-125 villages by upgrading the existing hospital or setting up new hospital. It also proposes to create a 1,000-bed district hospital in all district headquarters except Hyderabad, Warangal, Ranga Reddy, Nizamabad and Khammam, by upgrading the district-level hospitals and Osmania General Hospital and Gandhi hospitals with 2,000 beds. MGM Hospital, Warangal, and RIMS Adilabad are to have 1,000 beds.
G Rajendera Kumar
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