Vijayawada: IMA urges govt to add 20-bed specialty hospitals in Aarogyasri

Vijayawada: Indian Medical Association (IMA) Andhra Pradesh chapter has urged the state government to include the 20-bed specialty hospitals also in the list of Aarogyasri empanelled hospitals. The IMA said some 20-bed super specialty hospitals also render valuable services to the patients and hence should be brought under purview of Aarogyasri.

IMA' newly-elected state president Dr G Ravi Krishna and other new panel members spoke to the media at the IMA hall here on Tuesday.

Dr Ravi Krishna said Aarogyasri is very beneficial to a large number of patients and people are getting good treatment in the corporate hospitals for various diseases. He urged the government to increase the package amount for the hospitals due to rising cost of hospital maintenance, prices of medical equipment and medical tests.

Referring to the attacks on the hospitals and the doctors in the state, the IMA state president urged the state government to take measures for the effective implementation of laws that were made for the protection of hospitals and doctors. He said during the rule of Dr Y S Rajasekhar Reddy the state government enacted laws for the protection of doctors and to punish the guilty, who attack the hospitals in case of death of patients. Only 35 per cent people are getting treatment in the government hospitals and 65 per cent people depend on the private hospitals in the state, he pointed out.

Dr Ravi Krishna said the police should follow the Supreme Court guidelines while registering cases on the hospitals and arrest of doctors in case of death of patients in the hospitals. The IMA president urged the state government to take measures to curb the activities of unqualified and non-professional doctors in rural areas. He said non-professional doctors are indiscriminately prescribing antibiotics, which are not good for the health, said the IMA president. He said the impact of using antibiotics is heavy on the people, he added. The IMA is against the studying of medical course in the regional languages, he said, adding if the doctors pursue medicine in English it will be beneficial to them because they can learn advanced subjects that are available only in English.

He said English is the important medium of language in the world for learning medicine and IMA insists that the students should pursue medicine in English only in India.