Andhra Pradesh CM plans to set up 16 health hubs in state

Reddy expressed concern about Covid-19 patients travelling to Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai for tertiary medical care

As Covid-19 patients in Andhra Pradesh rush for better health care facilities in Hyderabad, Bengaluru and Chennai, Chief Minister Jaganmohan Reddy is planning to set up 16 health hubs across the state.

The 'truncated' state lacks superior medical infrastructure in the private sector like it is concentrated in Hyderabad, which went to Telangana in the 2014 bifurcation.

Earlier this month, the Telangana government denied entry for ambulances from Andhra Pradesh ferrying Covid-19 patients to hospitals in Hyderabad. The YSRCP government questioned Telangana's stance in the Telangana High Court which later nullified the K Chandrasekhar Rao administration’s orders.

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On Friday, Reddy reviewed the prevailing pandemic situation in AP where the daily new Covid-19 cases have fallen below the 20 thousand mark for the past few days but deaths continue to be high at over 100 per day.

In the meeting, CMO officials said, Reddy expressed concern about patients going to Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai for tertiary medical care.

To avoid such a situation in future, Reddy proposed to set up a health hub in each of AP's 13 district headquarters and also at Rajahmundry, Vijayawada and Tirupati.

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“30-50 acres land should be acquired for each hub and five acres should be allotted free of cost to hospitals ready to invest at least Rs 100 crore in three years,” Reddy directed officials.

Through these health hubs, the Reddy government wants to help establish 80 multi, super-speciality hospitals in the state.

Chief Minister expects that these hubs with private hospitals and the 16 teaching hospitals and nursing colleges the government has planned earlier would together strengthen AP's health care infrastructure.

“And then our people need not go to other places for treatment,” the CM said asking officials to draw up the health hubs policy within a month.

Meanwhile, officials said that AP's positivity rate which was at 25.56 per cent on May 16, declined to 19.2 per cent on May 27. The recovery rate improved from 84.3 per cent on May 7 to 88 per cent on May 27. Active cases are declining in almost all the districts.