Vijayawada: The combined Krishna district topped all 13 erstwhile districts in Andhra Pradesh in providing health and medical care services to the general public through primary healthcare centres (PHCs) and urban primary healthcare centres (UPHCs).It was followed by Vizianagaram and Prakasam districts, while Anantapur district stood a distant last.The three remaining districts in the Rayalaseema region—Kurnool, Kadapa, and Chittoor, also remained at the bottom of the PHC and UPHC performance rankings. These rankings were announced during a review meeting chaired by health minister Y Satya Kumar Yadav with DMHOs and DCHSs at his chamber in the secretariat at Velagapudi on Tuesday. The rankings were based on an internal assessment conducted by the health department.Besides expressing concern over the poor performance in rendering healthcare services at PHCs and UPHCs in the Rayalaseema districts, Satya Kumar also highlighted the negligible performance of secondary hospitals in the region. He noted that three out of seven districts with low surgery rates at secondary hospitals belonged to Rayalaseema. The three districts with lowest surgery rates at secondary hospitals were Anantapur (10%), Kurnool (10%) and Tirupati (24%).Meanwhile, with 42% surgery rates, Chittoor district performed comparatively better than the remaining districts in the region.In addition, the health minister pointed out that secondary hospitals in the Rayalaseema region also lagged in the utilisation of healthcare services under the Dr NTR Vaidya Seva Trust Scheme. Only three percent of surgeries were performed under the scheme, while the highest combined average of surgeries done under the free treatment scheme at secondary hospitals in the Rayalaseema districts stood at approximately 25%.He further noted that the number of maternal deliveries performed at secondary hospitals in the Rayalaseema districts remained low.Against this backdrop, Satya Kumar directed the concerned officials to initiate appropriate measures to increase the maternal birth rate and the number of surgeries performed under the Vaidya Seva Scheme at secondary hospitals in the Rayalaseema districts.Furthermore, the health minister flagged several irregularities by DMHOs in discharging their duties and raised serious concerns over allegations that health department offices were becoming centres of corruption.In this regard, Satya Kumar proposed the transfer of second-rung officials working in DMHO offices to curb irregularities in the health and medical departments. He further proposed a graded review performance system for DMHOs, to be conducted twice a year.
