Hyderabad: Telangana chief minister K Chandrashekhar Rao (KCR) today announced that the state government will start diagnostic centres in 19 identified district headquarters in Telangana. The new centres, being established to curb the COVID-19 virus, will be set up in major government hospitals from June 7, Monday, he added.
The chief minister instructed government officials to start the diagnostic centre that are already completed in Mahbubnagar, Nizamabad, Sangareddy, Medak, Jangaon, Mulugu, Mehboobabad, Bhadradri Kothagudem, Jagtial, Siddipet, Nalgonda, Khammam, Sircilla, Vikarabad, Nirmal, Karimnagar, Adilabad, Gadwal and Asifabad districts. KCR asked them to set it up across all major government hospitals.
During a meeting on Saturday, KCR spoke to medical and health department officials on Saturday and enquired with them about the decreasing COVID-19 in Telangana. The chief minister discussed with officials about the. The medical and health officials brought to KCR’s notice that as per his instructions, diagnostic centres are ready in 19 district headquarters. Hence, in response, he asked them to start the services from Monday onwards.
The chief minister said that to give better medical treatment to people in Telangana, all the medical services should be made available to them. In wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, all the basic infrastructure facilities at Primary Health Centres have been improved, he added. KCR also reminded officials to offer free medical service to the people, the state government had already implementing several schemes.
Speaking to officials during the meeting, KCR said, said, “Medical treatment is becoming more and more costly for the people. The poor are forced to sell their properties to get the treatment. The cost of diagnostic tests became more than the disease. These days every other person is suffering with hypertension and diabetes. They have to get examined for them. Tests for the heart, liver, kidney, and lungs, Cancer, Thyroid became a necessity for the poor. And Corona came and joined the list.”
Diagnostic centres will also be set up in other places in a phased manner, KCR added. The chief minister also stated that 57 tests would be conducted at these centres, which include tests for Corona. The tests include Blood, urine, Diabetes, hypertension, Cardiac ailments, orthopedic, liver, kidney, Thyroid related X-ray, biochemistry, Pathology and other tests.
Elaborating further, KCR said, “There are four types of expenses for the medical treatment. The transport expenditure to reach the hospital, doctor’s fee, medicines, diagnostic tests, expenses for the inpatient, if discharged transport charges to come back home, in case of death, funeral expenses.” The chief minister added that for the emergency services, the government is running 428 ambulances under 108 services as well.