The State government is continuing its efforts to ensure that one medical college each is set up in all the districts across the State.
The decision to set up medical colleges was taken by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao in view of the anticipated shortage of doctors and other medical staff.
The government is also actively working on bringing in major reforms in the health sector to ensure that efficient healthcare services are within the reach of the common man, Health Minister Eatala Rajender told the Legislative Assembly on Thursday.
Replying to queries during the Question Hour, the Minister said that while the governments in the erstwhile united State neglected the repeated requests for strengthening the medical infrastructure, including new hospitals, six new institutions were set up after the formation of a separate State. Steps had been taken to increase the number of seats in medical colleges by augmenting the infrastructure and other facilities required.
While the government had set up around 200 basti dawakhanas with permission accorded to 150 more, IT Minister K.T. Rama Rao is working to ensure spending of corporate social responsibility funds for putting in place key equipment like CT scans in government hospitals.
Replying to a query, he said that the State government had sought the Central government’s consent for setting up a medical college in Medak district headquarters in line with an assurance given by Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao. Work on the institution would commence once the Centre gives its nod.
To a question on staff shortage, he said that steps had been initiated to remove the bottlenecks in the recruitment of staff. The government had notified recruitment of 10,000 staff at different levels, of which 4,000 had already been recruited. In addition, more than 5,000 staff had been recruited since the incidence of COVID-19 and steps would be initiated to recruit 11,000 more staff once the COVID issue is resolved.