Telangana among top in healthcare in country: Harish Rao

Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao was working with a mission to make quality healthcare services accessible to the poor people across the State, said Harish Rao

Yadadri-Bhongir: Health Minister T Harish Rao on Thursday said the State stood in the third place in the country in the healthcare sector.

Laying the foundation stone for a 100-bed hospital at Yadagirigutta, he said Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao was working with a mission to make quality healthcare services accessible to the poor people across the State. The 100-bed hospital at Yadagirigutta would provide medical services to the local people as well as devotees coming from different places, he said.

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Pointing out that there were only three medical colleges in Telangana in the erstwhile Andhra Pradesh, the Minister said the number of medical colleges had now increased to 26 after the formation of a separate Telangana State.

Telangana topped in medical education in the country as well, he said, pointing out that the number of MBBS seats were increased to 2915 from 850 in government medical colleges. Similarly, the State stood in the second place in postgraduation in medicine courses, with the PG medical seats also being increased to 1208 from 515 after formation of the State. In private colleges, the number of MBBS seats had gone up to 6715 and PG seats to 2548. In affiliation to medical colleges, nursing colleges would also be set up in the State, further augmenting the medical education infrastructure in Telangana, he said.

Detailing how the quality of healthcare services improved in government hospitals due to the measures taken up by the State government, Harish Rao said the number of beds with oxygen facility in government hospitals had gone up to 27,966 from 1400 oxygen-beds in Telangana before 2014. The Chief Minister had accorded top priority to the health sector and allocated Rs.12,161 crores in the State budget, he said.

Pointing that Telangana alone had 33 palliative care centres, the rest of the States put together had only 168 palliative care centres. The number of dialysis centres too were increased to 104 by 2023 from three before 2014. The Infant mortality rate came down to 21 from 39 due to KCR Kits and Nutrition Kits being distributed to pregnant women. Institutional deliveries in government-run hospitals had also shot up to 61 percent from 30.05 percent. More Basthi Dawakhanas were also being set up across the State to make the medical services closer and more accessible for the people, he said.

The State government was setting super specialty hospitals with 4,200 beds around Hyderabad spending Rs 2,679 crores, while another 2,000 beds would be made available in NIMS, he said.

The Health Minister earlier participated in a puja at the Yadadri Lakshmi Narasimha Swamy temple. Government whip Gongidi Sunitha and Zilla Parishad chairman A Sandeep Reddy were also present.