Telangana Asks GGH Superintendents To Submit New Geriatric Centre Layouts
The health department, in coordination with Nims, will also arrange one male and one female physiotherapist for each centre, given the increasing demand of 50–60 physiotherapy cases per day : Reports
HYDERABAD: Superintendents of government general hospitals (GGH) were asked to prepare a detailed layout for geriatric centers in their premises.
Health secretary Dr Christina Z. Chongthu, speaking at an orientation programme for starting geriatric care at Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (Nims) on Friday said that the health department planned to deploy Aarogya Mitras, physiotherapists, counsellors, and introduce digital platforms for registering and tracking geriatric health records in an organised manner after a layout is submitted by the superintendents.
She directed superintendents and heads of general medicine departments to prepare a detailed layout for strengthening elderly healthcare services.
Dr Chongthu noted that although geriatric centres exist under the National Health Mission (NHM), the current system is not comprehensive, and a statewide reset is required to create standardised, end-to-end geriatric care across all district hospitals under the directorate of medical education.
Dr Chongthu cited the 44-bed geriatric centre at Nims as a model for integrated services with multi-specialty coordination. She asked superintendents to plan key patient-friendly features such as a separate entrance, exit and queue system for elderly patients, dedicated facilitators for registration and case documentation, proper maintenance of digital health records to ensure continuity of care, and strong linkage with field-level mechanisms for follow-up.
To address manpower shortages, the Aarogyasri Health Care Trust would deploy a team of Aarogya Mitras, data entry operators and facilitators exclusively for geriatric OP units in teaching hospitals, where patient footfall is high.
She added that geriatric OP rooms must function independently and be connected to a pharmacy to ensure smooth service delivery.
The health department, in coordination with Nims, will also arrange one male and one female physiotherapist for each centre, given the increasing demand of 50–60 physiotherapy cases per day, and superintendents were instructed to plan additional staffing beyond existing TVVP faculty.
Dr Chongthu said the government would launch an online partnership course with Nimhans to train personnel for roles such as clinical psychologists, as many government hospitals have psychiatrists but lack trained technical psychologists required for a full-fledged geriatric care system.
Dr Bheerappa Nagari, Nims director, said that the institute would assist in helping government hospitals set up getiatric centers with help of HelpAge India, an NGO that cares for the elderly in many states.
