Jagan orders priority to Aarogyasri patients in COVID health hubs

During the meeting held at the camp office here on Tuesday, the chief minister said the charges paid under the Aarogyasri scheme are better compared to the charges paid by the health insurance companies, and added that the hospitals which allot more beds to Aarogyasri patients should be given priority in health hubs.

He said that one member from the government will be present on the hospital boards in the health hubs. He said the health hubs will assist the doctors to treat patients efficiently and only the hospitals with the constant availability of doctors would be selected for health hubs. He directed the officials to focus on setting up hospitals for organ transplantation in health hubs. He said priority should be given to hospitals that run on a non-profit basis so that people don't have to go to other states for medical treatment.

Jagan gave nod for the appointment of special officers in hospitals (From CHCs to teaching hospitals) who would be held responsible for building services, facility management services and biomedical waste management services. He directed the officials to focus on the designs of newly constructed hospitals to ensure they are in line with the best maintenance practices.

He said the bed management, bathroom maintenance, hygiene and food quality and reception services are very important in the hospitals and they should be on par with corporate hospitals with adequate doctors and such services. He said the services should not be interrupted due to absence of staff and instructed the officials to take action on staff who are on leave beyond stipulated days.

The officials briefed the chief minister on details regarding the family doctor scheme which would ensure medical services at least two times a month in each village secretariat through 104 services. They said this concept will be implemented in 258 mandals from 15 November and will be extended across the state on 26 January, 2022. The chief minister directed the officials to use 104 services accordingly keeping in view the population as well and added to prepare SOPs and policies for village clinics. He instructed the officials to ensure availability of two doctors in each PHC so that one can be available in PHC while other can provide services through 104 services under family doctor concept and added to complete the construction of new PHCs soon.

The officials informed the chief minister that there are 14,652 active COVID-19 cases across the state and recovery rate is 98.6 percent and the positivity rate is 2.23 percent. There are zero active cases registered in 10,541 secretariats and 2,699 patients are being treated in hospitals, and 854 are in COVID care centres. They said 91.66 percent of COVID patients in network hospitals are being treated under Aarogyasri and 71.04 percent of them in private hospitals are being treated under Aarogyasri and fever survey is completed for 21 times.

Keeping the COVID third wave in view, the officials informed that 20,964 oxygen concentrators and 27,311 D type oxygen cylinders were made available and added that oxygen pipeline works are completed in 108 hospitals. They said the state government is setting up oxygen generation plants in 140 hospitals that have beds more than 50 and they will be completed by October. The officials informed the chief minister that 3,50,39,318 people were administered vaccine of which 1,33,30,206 received single-dose while 1,08,54,556 have been administered with two doses.