Prepare Route Map of All Health Facilities: Damodar Rajanarsimha

Hyderabad: Health and family welfare minister C. Damodar Rajanarsimha on Tuesday directed the Rajiv Arogya Sree Healthcare Trust and Telangana Medical Services & Infrastructure Development Corporation (TGMSIDC) to prepare a route map of health facilities available in the state.

The route map would show the geographical distance and connection of all government hospitals, PHCs, CHCs, area hospitals and district hospitals in the state.

This comes in the backdrop of reports of dissolution of public health department are doing the rounds which claim that the government is planning to merge the department with Telangana Vaidya Vidhan Parishad and bring all affiliated healthcare facilities under a the department of secondary healthcare services.

An informal suggestion was made to the minister during the Doctor’s Day celebrations on Monday about bringing all healthcare facilities at local and district levels under one umbrella. The minister had then said the government would ponder over the suggestion.

However, the idea has been opposed by doctors as the move will cause overburdening of one department and lead to forced centralisation of health facilities where in fact greater decentralisation is required.

The minister also directed the officials to continuously monitor the availability of emergency medicines in all government hospitals in the state. "Actions should be taken to ensure that necessary medicines for seasonal diseases and snake bite prevention are available in all government hospitals," the minister said.