The YSRCP president and Andhra Pradesh CM Y S Jagan’s decision to include Covid-19 in the list of diseases to be treated under Dr YSR Arogyasri scheme in private hospitals has virtually pushed his Telangana counterpart KCR to a corner.
The inclusion of Covid-19 under Dr YSR Arogyasri scheme is actually a revolutionary decision, as it would provide a big relief to the poor people, government employees, pensioners and even working journalists, who are part of the beneficiaries of the scheme.
They would all now get the treatment for Covid-19 free of cost even in corporate hospitals. The entire expenditure for the treatment will be reimbursed by the state government under the scheme.
Jagan’s decision has received wide appreciation from all sections of people in Andhra Pradesh. This has resulted in an embarrassment to the Telangana government as there has been pressure on the chief minister to make a similar decision to include Covid-19 under Arogyasri.
Many political parties have been demanding that KCR too should emulate his Andhra Pradesh counterpart in extending relief to the people.
“Though the Telangana government has fixed a cap on the treatment for Covid-19 in private hospitals, none of them is following this rule. If the government itself reimburses the treatment cost, there will be no trouble for them,” a political analyst said.
The BJP leaders went a step ahead and demanded that the state government should implement Ayushman Bharat scheme of the Centre in the state.
“KCR has rejected the central scheme saying that the Arogyasri is better than Ayushman Bharat. Now, he is refusing to include Covid-19 in the Arogyasri scheme,” a BJP leader alleged.
Several BC associations and even a section of TRS leaders have been requesting the chief minister to bring Covid-19 into the purview of Arogyasri. Let’s wait and watch the impact of happening.
Meanwhile, Telangana government has set up a dedicated call centre to provide counselling and care instructions to Covid-19 patients, both asymptomatic/ pre-symptomatic and isolation cases.
Experts from the call centre are doing a follow-up on a day to day basis up to 17 days in normal circumstances, the Health Department said on Friday.
Officials said tele-medicine consultation for mildly symptomatic patients undergoing treatment at home is also being provided.
Working in two shifts, the call centre has the capacity to handle 10,000 calls a day.
Distress management, through 24×7 inbound calls, is also being addressed. Emergency management through 108 linkup and transfer facility to the hospital is also being provided.
The inbound call centre is a 20-seater emergency care centre (1800 599 4455) working in three shifts with an enhanced capacity to handle up to 1,500 calls daily. The telemedicine call centre attends to 1,000 calls daily and provides information to around 10,000 Covid patients who are under home isolation.
The call centre tells them about precautions to be taken, provides information about a balanced diet besides enquiring about their health conditions as well as providing timely advice and suggestions.
The Health Department said that in order to further scale up the operations, the 104 call centre is being upgraded and it will have dedicated 75 seats identified for outbound calls.
Dedicated trained professionals comprising 200 tele callers and 75 doctors are being deployed. Quality monitoring teams with a built-up capacity to handle up to 20,000 follow up calls and distress calls is also being set up in the state, it said.
Telangana has so far reported 30,946 Covid-19 cases including 331 deaths.
Officials said 12,423 patients were undergoing treatment either in hospitals or at home. #KhabarLive #hydnews
