87 doctors appointed for family doctor concept

Kakinada: Kakinada Collector Kritika Shukla has said 87 medical officers have been appointed in 40 Primary Health Centres in the district to make the “family doctor’’ concept successful. The second medical officer of the PHC will visit the villages as per schedule and organise medical camps at village clinics. They will visit every village once in 15 days.

She said that 75 varieties of medicines are available in the 104 ambulance vehicles and medical tests will be done for 14 kinds of diseases. Some 30 kinds of machines are available.

The family doctor concept had been introduced in Kakinada district on a pilot basis in October last and 1.35 lakh people got medical treatment via this system so far.

Training has been completed for Medical and Health personnel who should update the health condition of the people from every family, she said and requested the people to make use of the medical services.

Kakinada Rural MLA Kurasala Kannababu said the 'family doctor’ system will help the people in rural areas get better medical treatment. District medical and health officer R Ramesh, DLDO Narayana Murthy and others were present.

Eluru collector Prasanna Venkatesh said 44 mobile medical units linked with VYSR Village clinics and 16 varieties of medical tests and 67 kinds of medicines are available in the village health clinics in the district.

In East Godavari district, state home minister Taneti Vanitha said Aarogyasri services are available in Andhra Pradesh as also the neighbouring states.

East Godavari collector K. Madhavi Latha said two public health centres in every mandal are working under the family doctor concept. A proposal before the government is for the setting up of a community health centre in each assembly constituency and an area hospital in each revenue division. She said that 5,000 patients are getting treatment through the family doctor concept per week from October, 2022.