Govt to Add 490 Ventilators, 9 MRI Machines in Hospitals

Hyderabad:Health minister Damodara Rajanarsimha on Monday told the Assembly that the government will provide 490 additional ventilators and nine MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) machines to strengthen medical infrastructure in state-run hospitals.

Replying to questions from MLAs, the minister said government hospitals currently have about 1,790 ventilator beds. Improved medical services have led to a surge in patients seeking treatment, necessitating more ICU and ventilator beds.

“To meet the increased demand, we are purchasing 490 ventilators. These will be installed in government general hospitals such as Gandhi, Osmania and MGM, as well as in district hospitals,” Rajanarsimha said.

He noted that Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (Nims) was receiving patients beyond its capacity, with many arriving on ventilators from private and corporate hospitals at the last minute. To ease the pressure, the government will provide 125 additional ventilators at Nims and fill around 850 posts.

Currently, MRI machines are available only at Gandhi, Osmania, Adilabad RIMS and MGM hospitals. The new equipment will be distributed across nine more government hospitals.

The minister also highlighted improvements in emergency services. Last year, 213 new ambulances were introduced, reducing response time from 18 minutes to 13 minutes. Another 79 ambulances will be added this year, cutting response time further to 10 minutes.

In the past two years, 16 new dialysis centres have been established, along with over 100 additional dialysis machines in existing centres.