Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy ordered that a committee be formed for undertaking a complete revamp of the services in government hospitals and announced the re-naming of NTR Vaidya Seva scheme as ‘YSR Aarogyasri’, besides increasing the salary of Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) from ₹3,000 to ₹10,000 a month.
Addressing a review meeting on the Health, Medical and Family Welfare Department on Monday, Mr. Jagan said he would start acting on the recommendations of the committee after it submits its report in 45 days towards providing quality services that are also affordable in the government hospitals.
Special Chief Secretary P.V. Ramesh from the Chief Minister’s Office would coordinate with the committee for devising an action plan on not only improving the services but also augmenting the infrastructure.
The Chief Minister suggested that the motto should be to transform the government hospitals into ‘model hospitals’.
Tackling staff shortage
The improvement in health services should be visible at the field level and not merely shown as data on the dashboard, he said.
The Chief Minister also directed the officials to prepare a report on the shortage of doctors, nurses and paramedical staff in government hospitals.
Mr. Reddy also instructed the officials to take stringent action against those selling spurious drugs.
Calls for report on Medtech Zone project
Mr. Jagan instructed the top officials of the Health, Medical and Family Welfare Department (HM&FWD) to submit a detailed report on the Andhra Pradesh Medtech Zone (AMTZ) project in Visakhapatnam.
At the review meeting on the activities of HM&FWD on Monday, Mr. Jagan questioned about encroachments and the fraud allegedly committed in the allotment of land in the zone which is meant for establishment of medical equipment manufacturing units and testing facilities.
The Chief Minister said he would personally look into all schemes and projects being implemented by the department, including the AMTZ, and called for updates next time.