AP govt. to spend Rs 2126 crore on health care

Visakhapatnam, May 2 (UNI) The Andhra Pradesh government had allocated Rs 2126 crore as non-plan expenditure for providing better health and medical care services to the people this year, Health Minister K Rosaiah said today.

Speaking after inaugurating the Rs 12-crore new building at Government Hospital for Medical Care here, he said this was for the first time a government in the state had given priority to health care and education at par with irrigation and agriculture.

In a major drive to improve institutional deliveries, the government would engage 54,400 health volunteers in villages and provide them with Rs 1000 to each mother who delivers a baby in government hospitals. Two hundred and fifty gynaecologists would also be appointed, he said.

He said to provide better child health care, the government had launched a RCH programme for which Rs 795 crore would be spent in the next five years. NABARD had extended a loan of Rs 165 which would be spent on buying modern medical equipment for diagnosis.

After Hyderabad, Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada and Tirupati had good potential to provide high quality medical service.

He expressed regret over medical graduates not willing to work in villages. The government spent Rs 20 lakh each for their education. But they are not going to villages. Half of 1570 PHCs in the state had no doctors.

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