The TRS government in the State has not even filled the posts sanctioned by the previous Congress government in the Medical and Health Department and Vaidya Vidhana Parishad after six years of assuming power, Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Mallu Bhatti Vikarmarka has alleged.

Speaking during his visit to the Nagarkurnool district hospital on Tuesday as part of the CLP’s hospital tour, he said it was unfortunate that the government was not providing proper infrastructure and staff in the public sector healthcare services even as the novel coronavirus pandemic was creating terror in the State.

“A government hospital needs at least 350-bed capacity to be qualified as a district hospital. However, the one at Nagarkurnool has only 100-bed capacity. Even the posts of doctors and other staff sanctioned for the erstwhile hospital by the previous Congress government have not been filled during the last six years,” Mr. Vikramarka said. The hospital has no basic infrastructure for the diagnosis and treatment of COVID-19 patients such as CT scan and angiogram. Even the X-Ray machine was out of order, he pointed out.

Against the sanctioned 49 doctor posts for the hospital, 34 were vacant, the CLP leader said. Government hospitals in the State are “temples without deities” since there were no sufficient number of doctors in any one of them. He reiterated the demand for opening isolation/quarantine centres in every Assembly constituency in the State as home quarantine facility in villages was helping the spread of COVID cases.

He also used the opportunity to mock Health Minister Eatala Rajender for not taking measures to fill vacancies even in his department “in spite of his tall talks that the movement for statehood was for the rightful share of government jobs for Telangana youth”.

KCR in hiding

Mr. Vikaramarka also visited the Nalgonda district hospital with a contingent of Congress leaders on Tuesday. There, he said while people continue to fend for themselves following the COVID crisis, Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao is “hiding like a mouse in his farm house”.

“Besides ignoring the voices of leaders from the Opposition on pandemic management, KCR has ridiculed many. The government has washed its hands of all COVID-19 responsibilities,” he said, adding that Mr. Chandrasekhar Rao was “a visible Chief Minister only during elections”.

He pointed out that the hospital has just 14 doctors, across specialties and departments, while the actual requirement is 375. All the 309 nursing posts in the various grades are also vacant. “Hospitals under TRS government have become temples without gods,” the senior Congress leader reiterated.

He wondered why any patient would visit such hospitals for treatment, and said the government had failed in filling up vacancies and building confidence among people.