Hyderabad, July 5: With crucial Assembly elections in Bihar in October this year, the state’s Chief Minister, Mr Nitish Kumar, has sent a team of 11 MLAs (nine from the ruling party) and officials to study the Rajiv Arogyasri health insurance scheme in Andhra Pradesh.
The team went to Gandhi Hospital on Monday and interacted with doctors and visited Aarogyasri wards to get a first-hand feel of the government-sponsored medical insurance scheme.
“It’s a very good scheme and if implemented in our state, it will surely benefit the poor. After July 10, we are going to conduct a programme on this and will speak to our Chief Minister about implementing this scheme in Bihar,†said Bihar MLA (JDU), Mr P. Yadav.
The chief Rajiv Aarogyasri Medical coordinator (Ramco), Dr D. Abhijeet, from Gandhi Hospital said that Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Maharashtra have implemented the scheme, while Orissa and Madhya Pradesh are also likely to go ahead with the project. There have been reports that the late YSR’s pet project was to be shut down, but doctors running the scheme say there’s no change in the attitude of the government or the Trust, and the reports of the scheme falling into neglect is just a political ploy.
At any time of day there are around 250 patients waiting to be treated under this scheme here. Since April 2007, 6,61,425 surgeries and therapies have been undertaken in Andhra Pradesh. The total amount disbursed for the scheme in the state is Rs 1,932.8 crore and the government has approved another Rs 6 crore, Dr Abhijeet said. “Within three months, we are to receive around 150 new items and equipment including ventilators, multi-channel monitors, high-end surgical instruments, and X-ray machines to name a few,†he added. A separate blood bank is also going to come up in the hospital.