YSR Aarogyasri Gives Poor Access to Top Class Medical Services

Amaravati: Asserting that many revolutionary steps have been taken in the Health Sector, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy has said that his government values human lives, where top-class medical services are being made available to the poor since two and a half years and effectively fought against Covid-19.

Listing out various initiatives taken up by the government in the last two and half years, the Chief Minister stated that YSR Aarogyasri scope has been widened by increasing the income limit to Rs 5 lakh covering 95 percent of the State population, and offering super specialty services from over 130 empanelled hospitals in cities like Hyderabad, Chennai, and Bangalore. Although the previous government tried to restrain the expenditures and left unpaid bills of Rs 680 crore to the network hospitals, we cleared all those arrears and even included expensive surgeries like bone-marrow transplantation, heart transplant, cochlear implants under Aarogyasri. In the last 29 months, almost Rs 4000 crore was spent on Aarogyasri and brought 2466 procedures under the scheme.

He said that 16 new teaching hospitals are being set up in the State besides revamping the existing 11 medical colleges, ensuring that every parliamentary constituency has one teaching hospital, one nursing college, and a 500 bedded super-specialty hospital. Even the tribal areas like Paderu will have a teaching hospital and five other ITDA’s are going to have super specialty medical services.Besides these, the State government is taking measures to strengthen the health sector from village level by developing 10,032 YSR Village Clinics, 560 Urban Health Clinics, 1321 PHCs, 52 Area Hospitals, 191 CHCs at a cost of Rs 16,255 crore.

The Chief Minister stated that the government is revamping all government hospitals across the State and equipping them with best infrastructure, along with WHO and GMP standard medicines. He said that steps are being taken to strengthen the private institutions in the health sector by inviting them to set up super-specialty hospitals in the State and allocate 50 percent beds to Aarogyasri, as government would provide land and offer complete support.

For the first time ever, the State has brought in YSR Aarogya Asara, paying up to Rs 5,000 to patients who had undergone surgery to support them during recovery period and further providing monthly pensions ranging from Rs 3000-10000 to people suffering from chronic ailments. Since the inception of the government, recruits for 9712 posts have been made in addition to 15,000 ANMs at the secretariat level and soon 14,788 posts will be filled by February 2022. He stated that the government lays special focus on kids and strives to bring three exclusive hospitals for children to avail advanced treatments and specialty services in addition to the one in Tirupati.

The Chief Minister said that the government has been rolling out the family doctor concept by appointing two doctors in each PHC, who would be visiting villages and offering medical services through 104 vehicles. Besides these, the government also initiated the YSR Kanti Velugu scheme providing free treatment for eye problems. So far, 66 lakh school students have been screened, 1.58 lakh children were provided with free eyewear and 300 children underwent surgeries. Similarly, 14.28 lakh adults were also screened, and provided 7.83 lakh glasses, and performed surgeries on 1.13 lakh people.

Speaking on Covid-19, the Chief Minister said that the State has tackled the pandemic effectively and conducted tests on over 3.02 crore people. The State made rapid strides in developing infrastructure and facilities in controlling the pandemic from zero labs to setting up 19 labs that function round the clock. He said that Andhra Pradesh is the only state to include Covid and post Covid treatments under Aarogyasri and also the first State that came forward to take care of the children who lost their parents due to Covid by depositing Rs 10 lakh for each child.
In regard to vaccination, the Chief Minister affirmed that 100 percent vaccination for all those above 18 years will be completed by March 2022, and so far 3.4 crore have been administered with single-dose and 2.39 crore people have completed two-dose vaccination. The government had spent Rs 3648 crore on Covid treatment alone to lessen the burden on the public.
Earlier, Initiating a short discussion on the Health sector, Minister Alla Kali Krishna Srinivas (Nani) said that the State government has taken public health care to the next level with revolutionary measures right from the YSR Aarogyasri scheme to effectively contain Covid-19 in the State. He explained in detail various welfare schemes, government measures that are being taken for strengthening the health care system in Andhra Pradesh.
Further, MLAs Chitti Phalguna, Silpa Kishore Reddy, Gopireddy Srinivas Reddy shared their views on the health care system in the State and lauded the Chief Minister for his commitment towards health sector.