VIJAYAWADA: Over one lakh Covid-19 patients in Andhra Pradesh have got free treatment in private hospitals under the government’s Aarogyasri scheme in the last year. For this, the state government had spent over Rs 309 crore.
According to a report, a total of 1,01,387 Covid-19 patients have received medical treatment free of cost at various private hospitals in the state through Aarogyasri from April 1, 2020, to April 23, 2021, in the state.
The Covid-19 patients, who recovered from the Covid-19, have termed the Aarogyasri as a life saviour. While September witnessed the highest number of patients — 28,924 — treated for Covid-19 under the Aarogyasri, private hospitals treated 21,042 patients in August and 15,423 patients in October 2020. For the rest of the period, the private hospitals have been treating less than 10,000 patients every month. During this month till date, the private hospitals have treated 4,746 Covid-19 patients under the Aarogyasri scheme.
Officials have informed that the government had approved a mammoth sum of Rs. 5,87,534 towards the medical bills of 49-year-old Ramanaiah Manda, a resident of the Nellore district who availed free treatment at Apollo Speciality Hospitals.
They added that a sum of Rs. 4,68,312 was approved towards the bills of 58-year-old Sheikh Nazeer. The family members of Nazeer observed that without the Aarogyasri scheme, they would have been under severe financial strain for getting him treated.
Minister for medical and health Alla Kalikrishna Srinivas said Andhra Pradesh is the first state to include Corona treatment in the Aarogyasri health scheme which helped over one lakh Covid-19 patients to get treatment for Covid-19 in private and corporate hospitals under the Aarogyasri network in AP. He stated that YSR Congress government would not flinch from providing Corona treatment in private and corporate hospitals under Aarogyasri and termed the health scheme as the life saviour in this Covid-19 pandemic.
