The YSR Aarogyasri scheme with enhanced benefits will be launched in Andhra Pradesh on December 18, Chief Minister Y.S. Jagan Mohan Reddy said on December 13 (Wednesday) and asked the health officials to instil confidence among people that all Aarogyasri card holders can avail of free medical treatment up to ₹25 lakh.
Chairing a review meeting on the launching of the Aarogyasri scheme with enhanced benefits at his camp office near here, the Chief Minister said the officials must bear in mind that health and education were among the rights of people and the government must provide it.
Follow-up consultations
People availing of treatment under the Aarogyasri scheme should be given ₹300 towards the charges when they go to doctors for follow-up consultations. The patients identified during the ‘Jagananna Aarogya Suraksha’ should also be given ₹500 each to visit hospitals, he said.
The officials should give an assurance to people that any eligible person in need of medical treatment for any ailment could avail of it free of cost up to ₹25 lakh under the Aarogyasri scheme.
The specially developed video on free medical treatment under the Aarogyasri scheme should be made available to the volunteers, secretariat staff and officials of the Health Department, besides making it accessible to all people, he suggested.
The Chief Minister directed the officials to construct residential quarters for the specialist doctors working in the government hospitals.
The Health Department is printing new Aarogyasri cards and these will be distributed to all households. The officials are planning to complete the distribution by the end of January, 2024.
Apart from this, a public awareness campaign would be launched on free medical treatment under the Aarogyasri scheme in which ANMs, CHOs, ASHA workers, volunteers, enthusiasts, people’s representatives and women police would participate. They would help people download the Disha App, besides hand-holding the patients being treated under Aarogyasri and handing over medicines to them.
Aarogya Suraksha camps
Directing the officials to launch the second phase of the Jagananna Aarogya Suraksha from January 1, the Chief Minister told them to conduct one Suraksha camp in a village in each mandal in rural areas and one camp in a ward in urban areas every week.
He said that medical treatment being extended to kidney patients in the Uddanam region should be extended to kidney patients in other areas too by making available all the necessary medicines in village health clinics, which would be managed by family doctors.
The treatment facilities being made available in Palasa should also be made available in the medical college at Markapur, said Mr. Jagan Mohan Reddy.
Special Chief Secretary (Medical and Health) M.T. Krishna Babu, Andhra Pradesh Vaidya Vidhana Parishad Commissioner S. Venkateswar, YSR Aarogyasri CEO D.K. Balaji and senior officials were among those present in the review meeting.
