Andhra Pradesh: Identify all medical vacancies to fill them up, Jagan tells health dept

Amaravati: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy directed health department officials to identity all the vacancies for nurses, doctors and para-medical staff from the village-level to hospitals across the state for the Medical Recruitment Board to fill them up.

At a review meeting of the Health department, the CM also instructed officials to stock sufficient supplies of medicines, besides submitting reports on existing vacancies in the future meetings.

Taking stock of the family doctor programme, Reddy said, "Intimate the available dates of visiting family doctors to people in advance through ASHA workers and ANMs so that villagers would be able to meet them." Efficient district officers should supervise this programme for effective implementation, he said.

2,100 more seats to be added

Meanwhile, officials informed the Chief Minister that 2,100 more seats were being added for medical education in addition to the 2,185 currently available in medical colleges. As many as 750 seats had already been added in the medical colleges at Vizianagaram, Rajahmundry, Eluru, Machilipatnam and Nandyala in the current year, where classes were about to commence, while another 350 seats would be made available in 2024-25 academic year.

The remaining 1,000 seats would be made available in the next academic year at Piduguralla, Bapatla, Madanapalle, Penukonda, Palakollu, Markapuram, Narsipatnam, Amalapuram and Parvathipuram medical colleges, the officials told the CM.

The officials also informed the CM that the covid pandemic was fully under control in the state and only 24 persons were being treated in hospitals now.

Andhra Pradesh was in the 23rd position across the country when it came to the spread of new variants, they informed the CM, adding that RTPCR tests were being conducted on the basis of necessity to curb the spread of the virus, including in Vijayawada and other cities.

Inputs from PTI