AP govt spending 7.3% of state budget on healthcare, says top official

As much as 7.3 per cent of Andhra Pradesh's state budget is being spent on healthcare compared to the average of 4 to 4.5 per cent overall in the country, a senior government official said on Thursday.

Special Chief Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, M T Krishna Babu said though the government is spending a lot in the sector, the level of public satisfaction over healthcare services is constantly being assessed.

"We are continuously taking feedback from patients both out-patients (OP) and in-patients (IP)," Babu said at a two-day brainstorming session organised for all government medical college principals and hospital superintendents in Vijayawada.

He said the conference was taken up to optimise the administrative setup of healthcare institutions with focus on improving healthcare services.

Babu said efforts are underway to ensure all the 16 government medical colleges in the state are adhering to rules, regulations, proper work conditions, financial management, accounting among others for effective delivery of services.

According to the bureaucrat, 48,000 additional personnel have been recruited into healthcare institutions for improving quality of services.

Meanwhile, Director of Medical Education (DME) D S V L Narasimham told PTI that the medical licences of Perumalla Rajasekhar and the team of other doctors who ran a kidney racket in Visakhapatnam will be cancelled upon their conviction.

Visakhapatnam Police Commissioner Trivikram Varma confirmed that Rajasekhar (56), who used to do consultancy for several hospitals, was charging a remuneration of Rs 10 lakh per kidney transplantation that he was accused of overseeing illegally.

Described as an expert in transplant surgery involving liver, kidneys, and pancreas, Rajasekhar was arrested by the port city police last week.