VIJAYAWADA: Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy has said the Family Doctor concept will be launched in AP on March 15 and it will soon be fully operational across all districts.
The CM conducted a review meeting on the medical and health department at the CM Camp Office in Tadepalli on Monday. He advised the officials to start the Family Doctor programme at a village clinic on March 15.
“Health services to 45,90,086 people have been provided so far in the Family Doctor Pilot Project and we have completed the appointment of doctors in 1,149 PHCs,” the CM said.
The officials said arrangements were ready for implementing the family doctor concept in full. Doctors in CHCs will be utilised as per the instructions given by the Chief Minister without any interruption of services during the long vacations. Additional appointments have also been made for this purpose.
“We have hired four additional doctors for each district,” they said.
The Chief Minister said an additional doctor for every 6-7 PHCs must be appointed to avoid interruption of the medical services. “Thus, 175 doctors are in reserve across the state. There were 10,032 Village Health Clinics with one ANM per clinic. Along with them, there will be a CHO and 3-4 Asha workers.”
Jagan Mohan Reddy said he wanted the Aarogyasri referral and services to be a part of the family doctor's duties. Officials, he said, must place complaint numbers on Aarogyasri cards to lodge any complaint about Aarogyasri services. The CM also asked them to link anaemia cases with the Sampoorna Poshan Plus programme and provide nutritional food through Poshan Plus.
The officials said the number of medicines kept in Village Health Clinics and 104 have also been increased.
According to the CM's orders, the list of 67 types of medicines given so far free of cost has been increased to 105 medicines. Some 14 types of diagnostic kits have also been made available to village clinics.
The officials said that mapping has been completed by connecting PHCs and 104 ambulances, under which 676 vehicles (104) are already providing services and 910 vehicles (104) will be used for the implementation of the family doctor concept along with the new 234 vehicles. Another 104 vehicles are also kept in reserve under backup for each district.
The officials explained that Family doctors are available at Village Clinic from 9 am to 4 pm. Family doctors would perform works relating to General OP, Non-Communicable Disease Management, Healthcare of pregnant women, visit to anganwadis including monitoring of children's health, visit of schools including monitoring of children's health, anaemia prevention, monitoring of the health of bedridden patients, home visits to provide free health services.
The data of those suffering from non-communicable diseases like hypertension and diabetes is also available to the family doctor. This data is used for follow-up treatment, officials said.
Earlier in the day, the Chief Minister launched Dr YSR Kanti Velugu’s third phase in the CM Camp Office at Tadepalli and instructed officials to consider offering dental treatment to the public and prepare a detailed action plan for the same.
He recalled that the YSR Kanti Velugu programme was launched on October 10, 2019 to provide free comprehensive eye treatment to the needy.
The CM said blindness can be prevented in more than 80 per cent of the cases. “The government is providing state-of-the-art eye treatment free of charge in a phased manner. Free eye examinations are done in primary health centers, sub-centres, secretariats and schools. Eye surgeries are performed in government and recognized eye hospitals. The government also is providing free spectacles and medicines to the needy,” he said.
He said the government has partnered with LV Prasad Eye Institute for the necessary training of ophthalmologists and other staff to implement the eye care programme. The officials explained that through the Dr YSR Kanti Velugu Phase-1 and Phase-2, screening tests have already been conducted for 66,17,613 students in 60,393 schools. Out of these, 1,58,227 students were given spectacles and 310 people underwent surgery.
Jagan said eye screening tests will be conducted at village and ward secretariats and the government aimed to complete this programme by August.
