Hyderabad, January 07: Health infrastructure in the state has grown at a slow pace and therefore the per capita availability of many facilities has stagnated or increased marginally. The government health facilities (hospital beds and doctors) per lakh population are the highest in Rayalaseema region followed by coastal Andhra region.
Although Telangana region, particularly excluding Hyderabad, is behind in these respects, if one looks at health indicators rather than infrastructure, a different picture emerges. Most districts in Telangana are doing well on various indicators of reproductive and child health (RCH) as compared to districts of Rayalaseema and coastal Andhra, particularly north coastal Andhra. This seems to be due to the better utilisation of available public infrastructure as well as greater availability of and more household spending on private health care in Telangana. Private health care provides the edge in Hyderabad and in some towns of coastal Andhra where large corporate hospitals with modern facilities are concentrated.
One notices that districts with the worst reproductive and child health indicators (for example, Vizianagaram in coastal Andhra, Kurnool in Rayalaseema and Mahboobnagar in Telangana) happen to be among the poorest in the state. However, the low level of child immunization in Visakhapatnam, Guntur and Nellore and poor reproductive health indicators in Visakhapatnam and Prakasam in coastal Andhra cannot be explained in terms of poverty and the only explanation seems to be lack of awareness and health consciousness in these areas. The solution seems to lie in not only expanding government health care infrastructure but also creating awareness about reproductive, child and general health, hygiene and nutrition as well as monitoring the private sector to insure quality and reduce malpractices.
–Agencies