Plan to make govt hospitals robust: Etala

● THE DEPARTMENT is taking up the training of primary health care workers who are an important segment and they will be trained to give confidence to refer cases to the government hospitals and not the private sector.

Disease mapping of fluoride, malaria, measles and others is important so that the health map of the state can be drawn, health minister Etela Rajendar stated on Monday.

The focus on reforms in the government sector is aimed at ensuring that the maximum number of patients are treated in the government sector. There is a comprehensive action plan being drawn for improving the health care systems in the state, Rajendar said.

For the first time, the Telangana state government claimed to have returned all the expired medicines in its warehouses and withheld payments to suppliers who had provided these medicines.

The department is taking up the training of primary health care workers who are an important segment and they will be trained to give confidence to refer cases to the government hospitals and not the private sector.

Rajendar said, “There is a need to increase accountability and for that the change is required at all levels of the health infrastructure. The network of government hospitals is very wide and its maximum utilisation must be made by the people of the state.”

He said that with 50 per cent deliveries taking place in government hospitals due to the KCR Kits it is clear that improved services will bring more patients to state-run medical institutions and they will not be forced to spend money in private hospitals. Rajendar asked all health department officials to co-operate and given a timeline of one year to inculcate the reforms.