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Telangana Govt staves off attack on Arogyasri
The State government was taken to task by the Opposition parties in the Assembly over the sorry state of affairs in government hospitals and failure in providing required medicare under the Arogyasri Health Scheme.
Hyderabad: The State government was taken to task by the Opposition parties in the Assembly over the sorry state of affairs in government hospitals and failure in providing required medicare under the Arogyasri Health Scheme. While expressing his happiness over the concern being expressed by the Opposition members over the health of poorer sections, Health Minister Lakshma Reddy stoutly denied that the government was diluting the Arogyasri scheme.
The Minister said the State government had so far released Rs 1,460 crore for the Arogyasri Health Scheme besides clearing the previous government’s arrears of Rs 200 crore due to various hospitals. As many as 322 hospitals were included in the list of hospitals which come under the Arogyasri Health Scheme for the poorer sections. Apart from including certain medical facilities in the scheme, even transplant surgeries were being conducted in government hospitals, he pointed out.
Launching a scathing attack on the previous regime, the Health Minister said the conditions in government hospitals deteriorated during the past and the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) government had taken up various measures to set them right by providing the needed infrastructure and other equipment in the hospitals.
As a result of better facilities available in government hospitals now, there was an increase of 320 percent in the patients coming to these government hospitals for treatment. In fact, the State had also received national award for providing better medical facilities in hospitals,
he observed.
The Health Minister further said the modernisation and better facilities available in a hospital in Adilabad district was even praised by AICC leader Digvijaya Singh. He disclosed that the number of emergency beds in NIMS was increased from 40 to 100 and steps were being taken to start emergency services in NIMS at Bibinagar on the outskirts of Hyderabad.
The Congress members, including Jeevan Reddy, accused the government of not clearing bills to the hospitals for providing medicare under Arogyasri scheme. While an amount of Rs 300 crore was due to the hospitals, the government had released only Rs 100 crore. As a result, some of the private hospitals were refusing to admit patients under the Arogyasri scheme, they said.
