Telangana: Senior IAS officers to join Covid operations at government hospitals

HYDERABAD: With Covid-19 cases rising exponentially in the state, especially in Greater Hyderabad, senior IAS officers will soon be roped in to monitor the situation and coordinate with health authorities at seven major state-run hospitals in the city.
Though several bureaucrats are already included in various committees, the government might depute IAS officers to coordinate with the seven hospitals, managing the bulk of Covid- 19 cases. Apart from Covid nodal centre Gandhi Hospital, the officers would keep tabs on six other health facilities, including Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS), District Hospital, King Koti, Government Fever Hospital, Sarojini Devi Eye Hospital and Government TB & Chest Hospital.
“The officers will coordinate with the hospital authorities for better management of the situation and attend to their needs,” a top government source told TOI. The directives might be released in a day or two.
Also, collectors would monitor the situation at major district hospitals. Till now, the district collectors were working closely with civic and health department officials, but now they would directly interact with hospital authorities.
Sources say at the district level, there were other changes in the offing.
A coordination committee on Covid-19 would be constituted with district panchayat officer and others to manage the situation.
In some districts, the government has already deployed district employment officers (DEOs) to look into vaccination stock and drive. Sources said there could be changes within the health department too after exit of Eatala Rajender. “The idea is to ease burden on officials and give them specific tasks so that there is more clarity in work” the sources said. CMO official P Rajsekhar Reddy was made nodal officer for Covid-19. IAS officer Jayesh Ranjan is looking into medicine and essential supplies .
While Sandeep Sultania will monitor bed availability, IAS officer Rahul Bojja will look after call centres. Sarfarj Ahmed will monitor oxygen supply.