Vijayawada: State witnesses giant strides in healthcare

Vijayawada: Aarogyasri, a unique free healthcare system was pioneered during the tenure of Dr Y S Rajasekhara Reddy and instrumental in bringing him back to power, recalled Thumma Vijay Kumar Reddy, commissioner of information and public relations department and ex-officio secretary.

He said in a statement here on Monday that starting with operations to those children with holes in the heart, the scheme proved to be a boon for the poor and needy.

He said that the scheme was not implemented properly after the demise of Rajasekhara Reddy. Non-payment of bills to network hospitals forced them to stop treating patients.

However, Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy has breathed a fresh life into the scheme by implementing it in an effective manner apart from adding many other benefits like hiking the income limit to avail Aarogyasri to all those who have Rs 5 lakh annual income which means that 1.42 crore families out of total 1.48 crore families can now avail the benefits under the scheme which translates to 95 per cent of population, he explained.

All eligible families are provided Aarogyasri card in 20 days at village/ward secretariats, he said. The scheme has been extended to 150 hospitals located in cities of Hyderabad, Chennai and Bangalore. The government has cleared Rs 680 crore and Rs 1,915 crore during the period from June, 2019 till date thereby making the bill payments up-to-date.

The government is also providing sustenance allowance during the recovery period, Arogya Asara that provides post-operative recuperative allowance at the rate of Rs. 225 per day or Rs 5,000 per month.

Vijay Kumar Reddy said that all medical treatments costing above Rs 1,000 have been brought under the purview of Aarogyasri scheme. "Naadu-Nedu programme is taken up at a cost of Rs 16,000 crore to give facelift to 7,458 primary health sub-centres, 1,145 primary health centres, 52 area hospitals and 169 community health centres," he said.

The government is poised to launch 10,000 YSR village clinics in April, 2021 at a cost of Rs 16,200 crore, Vijay Kumar Reddy added.

Construction of 16 new medical colleges and nursing colleges has been taken up. Three new cancer and two kidney specialty hospitals are being set up. Monthly pensions ranging from Rs 3,000 to Rs 10,000 are being extended to leprosy, paralysis and dialysis patients and those suffering from other chronic diseases. Salary of sanitation staff at Government hospitals has been increased from Rs 8,000 to Rs 16,000.

The state government, on April 13, launched YSR Tele-Medicine call centre 14410 to provide better medical counseling to poor. The Government issued a notification for recruitment of 9,712 medical staff including 40 per cent existing vacancies and 60 per cent newly-created ones. The government has rolled out 1,088 new 104/108 ambulances with modern equipment, he said.

The government expanded 2,200 medical procedures to six districts under Aarogyasri scheme. The Government has brought treatment for COVID-19 patients under the ambit of Aarogyasri.