Asha workers to sport smartphones soon

Hyderabad: The Telangana government would be providing smartphones to the newly appointed Asha workers in the Hyderabad city and would also pay their phone bills.

This was informed by the Health Minister T Harish Rao during the programme of launching of Amma Vodi Ambulances which were flagged off by the Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao at Necklace Roads here on Tuesday. Harish Rao said that earlier the average time for the ambulance to reach was 30 minutes but now it had come down to 15 minutes.

"We are trying to keep the Ambulances in a dynamic positions. We are increasing the wages of the employees of 108 services in four slabs," said Harish Rao.

Stating that the medical sector was strengthened in the state, the Health Minister said that the government can tackle bigger health emergencies than Corona. The Health Minister said he was happy to induct 466 state-of-art emergency vehicles at one go. When Telangana was formed, there were 316 ambulances and now the number has increased to 466. If there was one 108 vehicle per one lakh population, now there is one vehicle for 75,000 persons. On an average, the Amma Vodi vehicle serves 4,000 people per day whereas108 vehicles serve 2,000 people.

Harish Rao said that CM KCR was implementing the program of 100 bedded hospitals for each constituency in the state and about 50,000 beds were made available in the government hospitals by virtue of one medical college per district. Four TIMS at four corners of the city were also under construction, the minister informed.