: Health Minister Kamineni Srinivas inaugurated a 25-bed cancer block with a dedicated facility for bone marrow transplantation at Manipal Hospitals here on Friday. He also launched Manipal Home Care (phone no. 93430-93430) programme under which basic health care services will be rendered at the doorsteps of people in rural areas.
On the occasion, Mr. Srinivas said though a concerted effort was made to improve the quality of services provided in government hospitals, nothing much could be done as far as the super-specialties are concerned due to financial constraints.
The government has therefore been forging public-private partnerships to draw the best talent. “PPP is the only way to extend quality medial care to patients at government hospitals,” he asserted, while disputing the theory that it was nothing but ‘privatizing government hospitals’.
Mr. Srinivas said the government hospitals were doing better and the PPP would make them ‘preferred destinations’ for the needy. The number of transplantations being done in government hospitals has increased as there was greater cooperation with the private sector.
“This augurs well for A.P. Plans for the proposed All India Institute of Medical Sciences at Mangalagiri are in advanced stages of approval,”he added, and suggested to the management of Manipal Hospitals to participate in the government’s patient outreach programmes.
Manipal Hospitals Managing Director and CEO Ajay Bakshi unveiled plans to increase the number of beds at the Vijayawada unit from the present 250 to 600 in the next two to three years, and said stem cell therapy was fast catching up as an effective means to treating various life-threatening diseases.
“The costs of health care have come down marginally due to the increasing use of Made-in-India consumables and innovations going into the treatment procedures,” he observed.
Manipal Hospitals Regional Head (Tamil Nadu, A.P & Goa) T. Murali Rao, Vijayawada Unit Head G. Karthihaivelan, and medical oncologist G. Krishna Reddy participated.
