By strengthening Vishaka Institute of Medical Sciences (VIMS) in Visakhapatnam and Sri Venkateshwara Institute of Medical Sciences (SVIMS) in Tirupati and establishing a new All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Krishan-Guntoor, the state government of Andhra Pradesh is planning to make AP as the next medical hub of India.
Government of Andhra Pradesh (AP) is drafting a comprehensive plan to make the new state of AP the next medical hub of India. In view of this, the government has divided the entire state of 13 districts of AP into 3 clusters North, Central and Southern and establishing one AIIMS like instate in each cluster.
In each cluster, apart from strengthening the infrastructure in the government hospitals, the state government is also planning to establish one AIIMS like institute to meet the quality healthcare needs of the state. For this, the state government has already earmarked to strengthen the already existing VIMS in the northern cluster at Visakhapatnam and SVIMS in Tirupati in the Southern cluster. While in the central cluster in between Guntoor and Krishna districts, the state government has already sent a proposal to the central government to establish new AIIMS and the proposal has already been accepted by the central government.
“We want to make Andhra Pradesh the next medical hub of India. We have not only ordered to take all measures to improve and strengthen existing healthcare infrastructure in all the government hospitals, but our plan is also to establish AIIMS like world class standard institutes in all the 3 clusters across the state. VIMS will serve in the North, AIIMS will serve in the central and SVIMS will serve the southern cluster of districts in the state,” said Chandrababu Naidu, chief minister of Andhra Pradesh.
The state government is also planning to link all the government hospitals and the state level healthcare institutes with top notch and advanced medical institutes in the country. By this the state government plans to provide the best of best medical facilities to the people and make the state the medical hub of the country.
Prior to bifurcation, the entire healthcare infrastructure was developed and concentrated only in Hyderabad, because of which, people had to come from far away districts like srikakulam, chittoor to Hyderabad for availing advanced treatment of chronic disease. But now AP has formed into a new state, the state government wants to create its own healthcare infrastructure on par with world standards.
Moreover, the state government has also enhanced the limit of Aarogyasri healthcare scheme from Rs.2 lakh to Rs.2.5 lakh, under which the poor patients can avail high quality healthcare and treatment for various diseases. To make the Aarogyasri scheme more transparent and accountable, the state government has decided to link with Aadhaar cards of all white ration card holders with Aarogysri cards. For this, the state health department is planning to issue fresh Aarogysri cards called NTR Aarogyasri cards in the next one month.