Taking medical and health services a step forward, chief minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Friday inaugurated five government medical colleges with physically inaugurating Vizianagaram government medical college in Vizianagaram town and four others-Eluru, Nandyal, Machilipatnam and Rajahmundry in a virtual mode.
Addressing students after the inaugural ceremony in the presence of ministers and MLAs, the chief minister said serious efforts were being put to improve the health services so as to reach every village in the State.
"I request you to work for at least one year in a government hospital supplementing the regular doctors so that more people can be benefitted," the chief minister said.
He said the new medical colleges were being developed with a sole aim of providing good medical services free of cost and close to their homes.
Elaborating on adding strength of doctors in the State, the chief minister said there were only 11 medical colleges from 1947 till 2019 with 966 seats and that would go up to 4,735 seats by the time all the 17 colleges were completed by the end of 2026.
Similarly, the nursing seats were being increased from existing 1090 seats to 2,290 seats by constructing 18 more nursing colleges. He said the existing 11 medical colleges' infrastructure facilities were being increased by spending Rs 3,826 crore under Nadu –Nedu programme.
Among the services, the chief minister said 10,032 village clinics and 542 urban health centers were established for curative treatment to preventive care under the family doctors concept. All general hospitals have medicines prescribed by WHO and GMP.
Mentioning the expansion of Arogyasri health insurance scheme, the chief minister said 3,255 procedures including cancer were being treated now which was earlier 1,050. Similarly the referral hospital has increased from 900 to 2,258 hospitals during the last four years.
"We have 2,204 ambulances to bring patients from their homes to their nearest hospitals, which is unique in the country," Jagan Mohan Reddy said.
Taking pride in filling all the vacancies in the health sector, the chief minister said the government appointed 53,126 health staff during the last one year.
He said the national average of specialist doctors vacancy was 61 percent while AP recorded only 3.96 percent. In the nurses vacancy category, the national average was 27 percent while AP it was zero. The national average of lab technicians was 33 percent and in AP it was zero.
"We are following a zero vacancy policy filling the vacancies at regular intervals by creating a medical recruitment board," the chief minister said.
He said an innovative programme Jagananna Suraksha was being launched from September 30 which would continue for 45 days to identify diseases in all the villages in the State. This would help in mapping the health condition of the people.
Before concluding his speech, the chief minister told the students "All angels have wings but some have stethoscopes."