 "Telangana to double healthcare spending")
Inaugurating the Indo-Global Healthcare Summit and Expo 2014 here today, Rao said the state would set a target of at least doubling the current healthcare budgetary allocation from two per cent.
He said the Telangana government was determined to revamp public healthcare as 85 per cent of the state’s population depends on it.
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Giving a glimpse of the state’s long-term goal, he said: “Certain states allocate more than 10 per cent of their budget for healthcare. We would ensure sufficient allocations are made to government hospitals.”
Though chief minister K Chandrasekhara Rao was expected to inaugurate the summit, he could not make it.
He indicated the chief minister had announced a super-speciality hospital on the lines of Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences in Hyderabad would be set up in each district.
Primary health centres and area hospitals would also be established across every mandal and taluqa headquarters respectively, he said, assuring full support to private players coming forward to invest in healthcare.
“Going forward, the government will not only encourage greater investments in the private sector but we are also equally keen to ensure that our public healthcare system is beefed up to see rural and the downtrodden get the best healthcare,” Rao said.
He said Telangana inherited good healthcare infrastructure from the erstwhile Hyderabad state. “With the presence of world-class hospitals and being in the cross section of Southeast Asia and West Asia, the city has the potential to become the hub for medical tourism in the region,” he said.
The three-day summit, being jointly organised by the Indian Medical Association, state government and Indus Foundation, is the first international conference to be held after the formation of Telangana state.
Indus Foundation chairman CD Arha said the Indian healthcare sector had been recording a growth of 12 per cent in the last four years and was expected to grow from the current $70 billion to $145 billion in 2017 and to $280 billion by 2020.