Hyderabad:Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy on Thursday directed officials to ensure that the Alwal and LB Nagar Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences (Tims) hospitals, the Warangal Super Speciality Hospital and the Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (Nims) expansion project were completed and the institutions made fully operational by June 2, Telangana Statehood Day, next year. He also set a deadline of December 2027 for completion of the new Osmania General Hospital and commencement of services to the public.
Reviewing work at the medical and health department, the Chief Minister directed officials to complete construction, procurement of medical equipment and recruitment of doctors and other staff simultaneously for the institutions. He said a comprehensive action plan should be prepared to ensure that the projects and related recruitment and equipment procurement were completed within the stipulated timelines.
Revanth Reddy ordered a unified recruitment policy for doctors and other staff for the Sanathnagar, Alwal and LB Nagar Tims hospitals. Doctors and staff should be transferable among the three hospitals depending on the requirement for medical services, he said. Housekeeping and other hospital maintenance services should be outsourced. The government would appoint Group-I officers to supervise the Tims hospitals and retired military officers to oversee housekeeping personnel, he said, adding that this would enable doctors to focus entirely on patient care.
The Chief Minister directed officials to make full use of the Sanathnagar Tims to reduce the waiting time for surgeries at the Nims Hospital. When beds were unavailable at Nims or surgeries were getting delayed, patients should be shifted to Sanathnagar Tims if possible. The principal secretary, health, and the directors of Nims and Tims-Sanathnagar should coordinate on a daily basis to ensure better utilisation of the facilities, he said.
Revanth Reddy said doctors could be engaged from outside until regular recruitment for the Tims hospitals was completed and assured that the required funds would be released immediately. He directed officials to expedite recruitment of doctors and other healthcare personnel. He said the government had established 16 new dialysis centres since coming to power and ordered officials to complete the 79 dialysis centres under construction at the earliest.
The Chief Minister also directed officials to complete the works of teaching and nursing colleges being established alongside the Tims hospitals and procure the required equipment simultaneously. A comprehensive plan should be prepared and implemented to achieve this, he said.
He called for strict monitoring of attendance of doctors and other staff in government hospitals. Biometric attendance should be implemented to record the time of arrival and departure of employees and artificial intelligence should be used for monitoring, he directed.
Officials informed the Chief Minister that the number of beds in government hospitals had increased from 30,000 to 38,000 in the last three years. Revanth Reddy expressed satisfaction over the rise in outpatient numbers from seven crore to nine crore and inpatient numbers from 23 lakhs to 24.3 lakhs.
Health minister C. Damodar Rajanarsimha, MP Vem Narendra Reddy, Chief Minister’s secretary K Manicka Raj, health principal secretary Dr Christina Zongthu, TGMSIDC secretary Gaurav Uppal, health commissioner Musharraf Ali Faruqui, R&B secretary K. Ilambarithi, Nims Director Dr Rahul Devaraj and Tims Director Dr Narendra were among those present at the review meeting.
The Chief Minister noted that the coverage under the Rajiv Aarogyasri scheme had been doubled from `5 lakh to `10 lakh per family. The government had established nine medical colleges, 16 nursing colleges and 28 paramedical colleges in three years, he said. Health-sector allocations had also increased from an earlier average of 3.9 per cent of the State budget to 4.8 per cent during the last three years.
The government had completed 13,401 recruitments of doctors, nurses, ANMs and paramedical personnel in the last three years, while the recruitment process for another 5,640 posts was underway, he said. Revanth Reddy assured that the government would release whatever funds were required by the Health Department to give priority to public health.
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