Jagan taken up misinformation campaign on health scheme: Health minister

In a letter addressed to Jagan Mohan Reddy, Satya Kumar has criticised the former’s allegations of health services being affected due to non-payment of Rs 3,000 crore to the private hospitals.

The health minister faulted Jagan Mohan Reddy for paying only Rs 9,942.04 crore of the Rs 12,163 crore sanctioned amount under Aarogyasri scheme during his term and wondered where the remaining amount had gone.

He said the NDA government in the state had made a Budget allocation of Rs 4,000 crore for the NTR Vaidya Seva scheme to provide free healthcare to the patients.

He also claimed that proposals were sent to the government for Rs 2,007.67 crore to clear the dues to the private hospitals under the scheme.

The minister turned down the criticism of government plans to dilute the health scheme.

Referring to the threat of private hospitals to stop healthcare services under NTR Vaidya Seva scheme if the state government fails to clear Rs 3,000 crore dues, the minister said that their government held talks with the doctors and assured to clear Rs 500 crore initially. He turned down Jagan Mohan Reddy’s criticism on state planning to privatise the healthcare services and clarified that the state government instead was trying to strengthen the scheme by roping in insurance companies.

The minister said the previous YSRC regime had failed to run the 108 and 104 ambulance services properly and blamed it for meagre spending of funds to the health infrastructure in the state. He also alleged that the former chief minister had completed only 21 per cent of works and paid only 16 per cent of the proposed Rs 18,700 crore for the development of 17 new medical colleges in the state.