The AP government has decided to abolish the posts of class IV employees in government hospitals. The posts will, however, continue till the retirement of all those working at present.

The government has also decided to outsource all the work relating to class IV staff such as sanitation, cleanliness, security and other services in the hospitals. As sanitation in the hospitals, which is the responsibility of class IV workers, is not satisfactory, the government is planning to entrust the job to private agencies.

As soon as the child swapping drama at the government Maternity Hospital, Nayapul, came to a happy ending on Monday, the government, in an effort to check similar mischief, decided not to fill up the class IV vacancies hereafter.

Addressing newsmen on Tuesday, Medical and Health Minister Dr Kodela Sivaprasada Rao said, as there was no provision for transfer of class IV staff, the quality in sanitation had suffered in government hospitals. On top of this there was serious allegations of corruption against them. As their role was also suspected in the recent child swapping case at the maternity hospital in the city, the government had taken this decision, the minister said.

Dr Rao said the Sukhibava scheme wherein mothers were given Rs 300 towards travelling and related expenses for coming to a government hospital for deliveries had been extended to private hospitals in 9 districts. This was to encourage institutional deliveries in order to reduce both mother mortality rates (MMRs) and infant mortality rates (IMRs).The 9 districts are Srikakulam, Visakhapatnam, Vijayawada, Kurnool, Ananthapur, Chittoor, Nizamabad, Medak and Mehboobnagar. He said Rs 50 lakh would be given to each district for maintaining the hospitals under the Andhra Pradesh Economic Restructuring Project. Besides, Rs 25 lakh would be allotted to 10 districts during this financial year for construction of offices for district medical health officers (DMHO) and regional Directors, as most of these buildings were in dilapidated condition.

Wireless communication connecting all the primary health centres with each other would also be provided. All the DMHOs would be given cellular phones. It would be ensured that each PHC had a vehicle to bring pregnant women and other emergency cases to the health institution.

Regarding the recent GO90 with provision to hand over all medical institutions in the state to Hospital Development Societies, the Health Minister said it was not an attempt towards privatisation of health services. He said no one would be forced to pay user charges at the PHC level.