Rural healthcare being neglected

HYDERABAD: There is a lacuna between formulation and implementation of government policies on healthcare in  rural areas, admitted chief minister N. Kiran Kumar Reddy while delivering the inaugural address at the first annual conference of Clinical and Infectious Diseases Society (CIDS) being held here on Saturday and Sunday. “Nearly 400 vacancies for posts of doctors arise every year in government hospitals as recruits leave for post-graduate studies. The majority of these vacancies are in the interior and rural areas,” Kiran Kumar Reddy said.Rural and tribal areas in particular continue to face neglect in terms of health services and medical infrastructure resulting in more number of deaths, Reddy said. Efforts are on to strengthen primary health centres and fill up posts of government doctors, he said. “We have been giving a lot of incentives to the doctors to enable them to serve in rural areas,” he said.Referring to the criticism that the  Arogyasri scheme  was benefiting corporate hospitals, he said they were trying to increase government hospitals’ share to 40 per cent under the state-sponsored plan.Around 11 lakh surgeries had been performed under Arogyasri and the government has so far spent Rs 3,000 crore, the chief minister said. “We are trying to ensure 40%  of surgeries under Arogyasri are carried out in government hospitals.”