Hyderabad: Health minister T. Harish Rao hit back at Congress’ chargesheet that alleged that the health sector was in a poor shape in Telangana, saying the state stood third in the Niti Aayog rankings and topped the per-capita health budget.
He was speaking after releasing the annual health report-2022 here on Sunday. The report points out that the maternal mortality ratio in the state had plunged from 92 in 2014 to 43 in 2018-20 and institutional deliveries in the public health system had soared from 30.5 per cent in 2015-16 to 61 per cent last year. The infant mortality ratio (IMR) has decreased over the years from 39 in 2014 to 21 in 2020.
The minister ridiculed the utterances of Congress leaders when the state government was doing wonderfully well in the health sector.
“In the Niti Aayog index for states, the Congress-ruled Rajasthan ranks 16, Chhattisgarh 10 and Himachal Pradesh seventh. It would be good if the Telangana progress report is given to those states and they are asked to implement our policies,” he said.
Rao said the annual report is used to review and improve performances further. He said Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao allocated a budget of Rs 11,440 crore for the health sector this year. It is because of this that the state stands first in the country in terms of per capita health budget.
“We stood third in Niti Aayog rankings. In 2022, we started eight colleges simultaneously, which is unprecedented in the country. This year, nine more colleges are being opened. In terms of MBBS seats, we stand first in the country with 19 seats per lakh population and second in PG seats with seven per one lakh,” the minister said.
The government had issued orders for four super-speciality hospitals in the city which is coming up in Warangal.
It said the government was screening the eye health of the entire population under Kanti Velugu with the help of 1,500 exclusive teams. Oxygen generation capacity had gone up from 135 metric tonnes a day during Covid-19 to 332.6 metric tonnes a day.
Free dialysis is provided in government hospitals in the public-private partnership (PPP) mode. He said 50 lakh dialysis sessions have been conducted so far.
The report said the government was recruiting 12,522 medical personnel on a regular basis even as 969 doctor vacancies had been filled while notification to recruit 1,147 assistant professors and 5,200 staff nurses had already been issued.
Health secretary S.A.M. Rizvi said that the state government has not only boosted infrastructure, but has also strengthened all corresponding services. “Sanitation rates have been increased and diet charges have been doubled. Over 12,755 posts have been filled up, which is unheard of,” he said.
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