Hyderabad: Eight years of unique initiatives and hard work taken-up across all the sectors of public health has yielded many positive results for Telangana, Health Minister, T Harish Rao here on Thursday said.

Inaugurating the new administrative block of Indian Institute Public Health (IIPH) at Rajendranagar, Harish Rao said that Chief Minister, K Chandrashekhar Rao realised the importance of supporting institutions that are dedicated to public health. In 2015, he allocated 45 acres of land at Rajendranagar and Rs. 10 crore for the development of a reputed public health care institute like IIPH in Hyderabad.

The Covid pandemic made everybody realise the importance of public health. In the last few years, due to unique schemes like Palle Pragathi and Pattana Pragathi, Telangana has been successful in reducing the annual burden of malaria and dengue.

When it comes to measuring the overall performance in the health care sector, after statehood, Telangana has quickly emerged among topmost performing Indian States.

In fact, in the recent Rajya Sabha session, Telangana received a lot of praise for development in the health sector. At present, Telangana is ranked among top three Indian states for allocating maximum financial resources in its annual budget.

Realising the need to provide quality health care services to urban poor, the Chief Minister introduced the concept of Basthi Dawakhanas. Overall, there are 390 Basthi Dawakhanas across Telangana out of which 259 such health care facilities are located in Hyderabad. Recently, the 15 th Finance Commission appreciated the concept of Basthi Dawakhanas, which provide quality health care facilities to people in urban slum settlements.

There are 630 Primary Health Centres (PHCs) across Telangana and efforts are on to keep improving the overall quality of health care facilities, Harish Rao said.

To improve public health care services, allocating resources has become necessary. In this year’s annual budget, the allocation of funds to the health sector in Telangana increased from Rs. 6, 295 crore to Rs. 11, 440 crore, an increase of 4.5 percent. In contrast, this year, the Central government has increased its budgetary allocation to the health sector only by 1.1 percent, he said.

Apart from public health, Telangana government has also taken steps to strengthen medical education by deciding to establish medical colleges in all the districts. Each teaching hospital will also have a nursing college, which will have a positive impact on nursing education. Apart from medical colleges, we are also establishing 6 super specialty hospitals, which will further improve the quality of health care services, the Minister added.