Start recruiting more medical officers immediately, AP CM

Follow up with government initiatives consistently, CM urges officials

Make the tribal areas aware of health habits and use of medicines

Tele-conference on Friday with all ITDA officials to analyse the root of lack of sanitation

Clean and Green Programme to be conducted on July 1st, Saturday to fight mosquitoes and promote health and hygiene

In view of the recent deaths in Chaparayi, East Godavari, due to drinking contaminated water, a review meeting was held on Tuesday, to discuss the status of healthcare among the tribal population. 

The Chief Minister said that all collectors and project officials (POs) should treat this as a wake-up call. He said, “Spread awareness among the tribal population about health habits and hygiene.”

The Chief Minister also announced that ₹105 crore will be released to meet the drinking water needs of the ITDAs. 

The Chief Minister addressed POs and collectors from all the 7 Integrated Tribal Development Agencies (ITDAs) in the video conference, in which a report on the current number of medical officers, para-medical officers, nursing staff and the status of health facilities was presented. 

Out of 31 sanctioned positions for gynaecologists, 15 are still vacant. 18 out of 23 positions for anaesthetists and 15 out of 23 positions for paediatricians are still vacant. 

Poonam Malakondaiya, Principle Secretary, Health Medical and Family Welfare Department, was asked to recruit more nursing staff, medical and para-medical officers, on an immediate basis.

Kartikeya Mishra, Collector of East Godavari district, told the Chief Minister that six new teams have been brought into the field for emergency medical services today. He said that tomorrow, every medical camp will be visited by a government official, for basic training and awareness about the use of medicines, and maintenance of health and hygiene.

The Chief Minister said that a tele-conference will be held on 30th June, Friday, to discuss and analyse information about the seasonality and nature of all communicable diseases, water borne and vector borne diseases. 

By addressing all individual project officers, he examined the progress of government initiatives for the total tribal population of 15.3 lakh across the 7 ITDAs – Seethampeta, Parvathipuram, Paderu, RC Puram, KR Puram, Srisailam and Chintoor, all of which comprise of 71 tribal mandals. 

With inputs from Kamineni Srinivas, Health Minister, the Chief Minister said that even though a lot of the medical services, government initiatives and awareness programmes have been outsourced, to ensure high quality of healthcare, it is the responsibility of our departments to monitor the progress consistently.

He said, “There should be no lack of credibility. Whatever we commit to, it is our duty to ensure that it is executed on ground.”