Free medical tests for women above 35

Hyderabad: In a major fillip towards a comprehensive health cover, the Andhra Pradesh government has decided to conduct free medical tests to about 95 lakh women who have attained the age of 35 years. Chalking out its plans to bring down the maternal mortality rate in the State, besides conducting the free medical tests, the government has also decided to launch a new scheme from July 1, this year, to establish 100-bedded hospitals across the State exclusively for mother and child health care.
Disclosing this after a review meeting with senior medical and health officials here on Friday, Medical and Health Minister Kamineni Srinivas said, “The decision to extend free medical tests to 95 lakh women on completion of 35 years of age has been taken following a direction from Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu.
“Major objective in conducting the medical tests was to assess the health issues related to women and then to address them with effective follow up action, so as to protect the health of women. Government’s other decision to launch the 100-bedded mother and child hospitals would go a long way in providing medical facilities within the reach and to effectively contain the Maternal Mortality Rate (MMR) and Infant Mortality Rate (IMR),” Kamineni said. In order to address the need to extend effective treatment to cancer patients, Kamineni said that the government is considering a proposal from NATCO group to establish a specialty wing for cancer treatment in Guntur Government General Hospital (GGGH) in about 30,000 Sft with an estimated cost of Rs 16 crore.
“Preliminary round of talks with the NATCO have been completed and if the proposed move gets materialised, then, it would help thousands of cancer patients in the State,” the Minister said.
In another major decision, a 9-member committee headed by State Director for Health has been constituted to explore and draft policy guidelines and modalities to provide training to about 52,000 medical practitioners in the rural areas of the State.
As part of this, besides training, it was also proposed to conduct examinations and issue certificates to the Registered Medical Practitioners (RMP), Private Medical Practitioners (PMPs) and Paramedics in the State.
The Minister said that the committee will have Commissioner, AP Vidya Vidhana Parishad, Director of Medical Education, Registrar of AP Medical Council, Secretary of AP Paramedical Board, standing council of AP Medical Infrastructure Development Corporation, Additional Director of AYUSH and two legal experts as members and it was asked to submit its report within two weeks.
The committee would study the existing policies and practices in the country related to the RMP, PMP and Paramedics and come up with draft policy guidelines suitable to the State, said the Health Minister.
Family Welfare Commissioner Satyanarayana, APVVP Commissioner Somaraju, DME Venugopal, MLC TD Janardhan, Telugunadu Paramedics Association president CL Venkatrao and others were present.