Jagan took revolutionary decisions in healthcare, enhanced budget outlay: Minister
Vijayawada: Health Minister Vidadala Rajani claimed here that the YSR Congress government took several revolutionary decisions in providing healthcare to the poor through many flagship programmes and enhanced the budget outlay for health to Rs 15,284 crore in 2022-23 from Rs 8,463 crore in 2018-19.
The minister said in the legislative council on Thursday that the government has increased the number of treatment procedures under the Dr YSR Aarogyasri scheme to 2,446 including for Covid and post-Covid situations, bi-cochlear, bone marrow transplantation etc from 1,059 procedures available during the previous Telugu Desam term.
As high as Rs 5,099 crore was spent to provide treatment under the scheme to 24.47 lakh patients from 2019 to 2022. The scheme was expanded to cover all whose annual income is no more than Rs 5 lakh. Some 1.40 crore families were getting the benefit, she said.
The minister said the Aarogyasri health cards were being replaced with PVC smart card with a QR code and the scheme was now covering 17 super specialties, involving 716 procedures, in the empanelled hospitals located in Hyderabad, Chennai and Bengaluru.
The minister said that under the YSR Arogya Asara scheme, the state government is providing post-operative sustenance allowance to compensate the loss of wages for patients who undergo surgery under the YSR Aarogyasri scheme. As many as 8.90 lakh beneficiaries got the financial support totalling Rs 571.85 crore in the last three years of the YSRC rule.
She said that under YSR Pension Kanuka, people suffering from chronic illnesses like thalassemia, sickle cell anaemia, muscular dystrophy, kidney disease etc were being provided a monthly pension of Rs 3,000 to Rs 10,000, depending on the disease condition. Nearly 68,874 persons benefited from this so far, with a monthly disbursement of Rs 35.01 crore.
The minister said that in the “largest-ever” recruitment drive in the history of AP, 40,476 personnel were appointed in the health department in the last three years. The government would fill up all vacant posts in the department and even create new posts to ensure better healthcare to the poor in the state, she said.
