The Telangana state government is planning to focus on preventive measures and early detection of diseases in the state. As part of this, the government is planning to conduct mass screening and conduct free disease diagnostic tests for all the people in the state and aims to create a comprehensive disease profile database of the state.

While revealing that very soon the government of Telangana state is planning to bring in revolutionary reforms in the healthcare sector, Health Minister Dr C Laxma Reddy said, “Initially our focus was to improve the existing healthcare infrastructure in the government Hospitals and to provide quality of medical services and more focus was given towards treatment of diseases. However, moving further to our initial steps, now we want to focus on preventive and early detection of diseases among the public and accordingly a state level disease profile will be created which would help take better decisions for effective delivery of healthcare services to the public,” informed the health minister.

At present the state government had brought in lot of developments both infrastructure wise, equipment wise and even enhancing the healthcare staff and doctors in the government hospitals in the initial phase. However in the second phase, the state government is also planning to give more focus on preventive healthcare aspects and early detection of diseases by conducting mass screening and free diagnosis for the public at the government hospitals.

Already the state government has mooted its plan to conduct free eye tests to all the people in the state and for this the health department is making all necessary arrangements and equipping hospitals with required facilities. “As part of preventive and early disease detection programme we are planning to conduct mass medical tests free of cost to all the people in the state once in a year and a disease profile of the public will be prepared,” informed Dr Reddy.

Based on the disease profile obtained, the state government is expected to launch various healthcare initiatives like conduct mass vaccination drives and take all necessary measures to eradicate diseases like Malaria and even prevent seasonal ailments among the public.

The health minister said that major step towards prevention of diseases is to maintain self and environmental hygiene by each and every individual. “The major cause of disease is due to non maintenance of self hygiene and keeping your surrounding untidy. If one can take care of these two aspects 75 per cent of diseases will be prevented,” said the minister.

The health minister enumerated that during the past 4 years the Telangana state government had taken comprehensive and never before measures to improve the inflow of patients in government hospitals. “Unlike earlier the present condition of government hospitals has drastically improved. Our main objective is to inculcate hope among the people in the government hospitals and as part of this we are taking drastic measures to improve healthcare system and ensure that each and every individual will get free quality treatment in the government hospitals,” said the minister.

For the first time in the country the state government is also planning to start palliative care centres to help the terminally ill people to mitigate their pain in the end stage of their disease. In addition to this health department has also started first of its kind fertility centre in Ghandi General Hospital in Hyderabad to help the child less parents get free fertility treatment free of cost.