Vijayawada: State minister for health Kondru Murali on Sunday said that Vijayawada is on its way to becoming a health city are efforts are on to start a super-specialty hospital and modernise the medical college.
“After the super-specialty hospital becomes a reality and the project to modernize the medical college is completed, Vijayawada will become a health city,” Murali told the media after visiting the Shaik Raju Maternity Hospital in the Old City.
The hospital is now being run by the state government after the Vijayawada Municipal Corporation, which is facing a financial crunch, was unable to provide adequate facilities. The minister said the state government had decided to take over the hospital so that more facilities could be provided for the patients.
“The state government plans to build a super-specialty hospital under the aegis of the Dr NTR University of Health Services, with a budget of Rs 290 crore. The government is in the process of identifying 50 to 100 acres of land to build the hospital,” Murali said.
He said that permissions have been granted to set up medical colleges in Vijayanagaram, West Godavari, Nizamabad and Karimnagar districts so far. A medical college each would be sanctioned in the future for all other districts too, the minister said.
He said that of the Rs 6,500 crore allotted for medical and health this fiscal, as much as Rs 6,000 crore was being spent on surgeries of about 20 lakh patients. Over 70 lakh people holding white ration card utilised the Arogyasri health scheme.
Murali said steps will be taken to issue health cards to all government employees. “We are contemplating to issue health cards to employees of municipal corporations, municipalities, lawyers and journalists,” he added.
The minister said that about Rs 200 to Rs 300 crore was spent to buy medicines in the state while another Rs 350 crore used for diagnostics. He revealed that the AP Public Service Commission has started the process to recruit 1,200 doctors.
MLA V. Srinivas said that the maternity hospital would be upgraded to a mini-general hospital soon.
