Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has said the recruitment of doctors and paramedical staff in government hospitals, mainly for tackling COVID-19, would be completed in 10 days and that the containment of the pandemic entailed a daily expenditure of ₹10.18 crore.
He warned of stringent action on hospitals flouting the norms in the implementation of the YSR Aarogyasri scheme and ordered that help desks with ‘Arogya Mitras’ should be set up at every network hospital to cater to the requirement of the beneficiaries.
In a review meeting on the steps taken to curb the COVID-19 menace on Friday, Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy said the new medical colleges being set up by the government would strengthen the health systems, and directed the officials to attach due priority to the augmentation of infrastructure in the urban health centres.
He also told the officials to give ratings to the hospitals on the basis of patient feedback and make necessary improvements.
The Chief Minister instructed officials to make mock calls to call centres every day to check their work and record the response and to intensify the awareness campaign on COVID which continued to be a threat.
Officials told the CM that the process of recruitment of 30,887 posts in the Health Department was nearing completion. So far, 21,673 posts were filled on contract basis and of the 9,971 regular posts, 4,676 were filled up.
The State has 138 COVID care hospitals with 37,441 beds, of which 2,462 are general beds and 11,177 oxygen-supported beds while 2,651 ICU beds are vacant.
Deputy Chief Minister and Minister for Health Alla Kali Krishna Srinivas, Chief Secretary Nilam Sawhney and Special Chief Secretary K.S. Jawahar Reddy were among those present.