Hyderabad | July 18: Telangana Health Minister Damodar Rajanarasimha said the performance of government hospitals has improved significantly, leading to a steady rise in the number of patients seeking treatment at public healthcare facilities.
The Minister stated that improved medical services have increased public confidence in government hospitals, while private hospital owners themselves have admitted that the number of patients visiting private hospitals has declined.
He also noted that more doctors are now showing interest in joining government service, as reflected in the recent recruitment drives. The Minister made these remarks during a review meeting with Superintendents of all Government General Hospitals, Area Hospitals, and 100-bed government hospitals at the Indian Institute of Health and Family Welfare on Saturday.
Senior officials, including Health Principal Secretary Christina Z. Chongthu, TGMSIDC Managing Director Gaurav Uppal, Director of Medical Education Narendra Kumar, Aarogyasri CEO Hanumanthu, Director of Public Health Ravinder Naik, and IIHFW Chairperson Dr. Kavitha, attended the meeting.
The Minister praised hospital superintendents for their role in improving public healthcare and emphasized that maintaining patients’ trust is the collective responsibility of doctors, health officials, and hospital staff.
He said the government is committed to providing all necessary infrastructure and resources to ensure quality healthcare. Over the last two-and-a-half years, nearly 14,000 posts have been filled, including doctors, nurses, lab technicians, and paramedical staff, while recruitment for additional vacancies is ongoing.
The Minister also highlighted the construction of new hospital buildings to replace old, congested, and rented facilities, along with the uninterrupted supply of medicines and surgical equipment.
He instructed hospital superintendents not to make excuses for deficiencies in service quality and urged them to immediately report any issues related to infrastructure, manpower, medicines, or equipment to higher authorities.
Rajanarasimha directed every superintendent to take full ownership of their hospital, personally inspect wards every day, interact with patients, and ensure cleanliness, safe drinking water, sanitation, quality food, and security.
He warned that negligence, unnecessary absenteeism, delays in treatment, or making patients wait for long hours would not be tolerated.
The Minister further instructed that emergency departments, ICUs, maternity wards, operation theatres, dialysis units, laboratories, blood banks, and radiology services must function efficiently round the clock. Critically ill patients, he said, should receive immediate treatment without delay.
He also stressed the need to keep advanced medical equipment operational, repair faulty machines promptly, and report shortages of medicines or infrastructure without delay.
To strengthen accountability, the Minister announced that the Health Department will introduce a performance dashboard to continuously monitor government hospitals. The evaluation will be based on indicators such as OP and IP services, surgeries, emergency care, maternal and child healthcare, patient satisfaction, cleanliness, and overall service quality.
He added that doctors and staff delivering outstanding performance will be rewarded, while strict action will be taken against those found negligent.