Why is government stopping us from visiting hospitals, ask BRS leaders

HYDERABAD

The Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) has observed that the public health sector in Telangana is in total chaos and the spike in the maternal and infant mortality rate in the State in the recent months is an indication.

Speaking to newspersons in the party office here on Monday after they were taken into custody by police in the Old MLA Quarters along with City president of the party and MLA M. Gopinath, members of the party committee on public health — Dr. T. Rajaiah, Dr. K. Sanjay Kumar and Dr. M. Anand — sought to know why the government was so reluctant to allow them to visit the Gandhi Hospital. They were going there not for staging any protest but to help the government by bringing facts to its notice, they said.

The party leadership had formed the committee to study the public health sector status following the increase in maternal and infant mortality rates as also the spread of seasonal diseases such as viral fever, dengue and others only to help the government make necessary interventions, the committee members said. They stated that lack of frequent review was one of the reasons for scarcity of medicines in government hospitals and health centres.

Stating that medicines and equipment used to be taken to the agency/tribal areas by helicopters during the BRS rule when it was not possible to send it by road and the previous government did on its own without even the opposition parties asking for it. However, several ministers in the Congress government were using helicopters even for petty and personal reasons.

They pointed out the decline in the institutional deliveries, particularly in the public health sector, after the Congress took over the State’s reins. They stated that they would visit other hospitals in the State to bring facts to the government notice.