All medical colleges in AP to have Wifi

Hyderabad, June 29 (INN): The Government of Andhra Pradesh has directed all medical colleges in the state to make Wifi facility available to students immediately. This decision was taken by the Chief Minister during the second meeting of the State Medical Advisory Board at Secretariat on Monday.

With healthcare systems in the state in shambles in the last 10 years due to lack of proper direction and focus on public healthcare, human development indices have worsened, leading to high maternal mortality and infant mortality rates.

To set direction and making considerable investments in public health, the state government had formed State Medical Advisory Board to work on revamping public health systems in Andhra Pradesh. The Board first met in January 2015.

In the meeting today, the Chief Minister was briefed about how digitisation of exams, course modules, journals, text books and library in Dr. NTR University of Health Sciences (NTRUHS) has made things easy for students and has saved time.

The Chief Minister directed Dr. Ravi Raju Tatipudi, Vice-chancellor of the University to also upload results of all examinations taken by students previously. 'That will make it easy for them if they want to check their scores and improve their performance,' he added.

Special Chief Secretary (Health) L.V. Subramanyam informed the Chief Minister that specialised cardio care facility has began in Guntur General Hospital while it will soon be started in Visakhapatnam's King George Hospital, Ria Hospital in Tirupati and Kurnool Medical College.

Meanwhile, Dr. Somaraju of Care Hospital suggested that medical colleges/universities should be housed in the same campus as the hospital in order to create an entire ecosystem while Dr. Arun Singh, a neonatologist, suggested that nursing colleges too should be part of the ecosystem to give hands-on experiences to nurses/paramedical staff instead of being isolated.

Dr. Singh also highlighted the need for fundamental research in universities where professors have to carry out the research.

Dr. P. Jagannath, Chairman, Department of Surgical Oncology, Lilavati Hospital and Research Centre, suggested that paramedical courses with diploma or certificate-course be introduced in order to allow rural students to complete the course in a short time and acquire on-ground practical experience.

The Chief Minister has asked the Advisory Board to come up with a strategic action plan which will identify the low-hanging fruits to bring in immediate results and also suggest methods to revamp the entire healthcare system which will bring in long-term results, keeping the changing dynamics of healthcare across the world. 'We have to shift from curative system to preventive healthcare system,' the Chief Minister said.

The strategic plan will include integrating various departments within the medical sector to enhance the response systems and services. 'We need to shift from a institutionalised-centric healthcare to people-centric healthcare system,' the Chief Minister added.

Principal Secretary of Primary Health Poonam Malkondaiah said that the bottom-up transformation can happen through 1.5 lakh field workers including anganwadi workers, ANMS and ASHA workers. 'From educating/counselling women on lifestyle changes to pre-natal and post-natal care, they can be a great force that can be utilized to educate people on preventive healthcare,' she added.

Stating the people should reap the benefits of the change in healthcare system, the Chief Minister said that fixing targets for field workers, monitoring work and data uploaded online on a real-time basis as well as fixing accountability will improve progress in the sector. 'We can also explore ways to involve experts, corporates through CSR, NGOs, philanthropists and other individuals who will contribute to the cause and held the state in restructuring the entire system,' he added.

On medical education, the Chief Minister asked Dr. Ravi to explore collaborations with Harvard Medical School and John Hopkins School of Public Health on designing course structure for medical colleges in the state. 'We can also have them as guest professors in our Universities where they can not only impart skills to students but also to our teacher,' the Chief Minister opined.

Apart from upgrading existing colleges with facilities, they should also apply for accreditation after quality enhancement, the Chief Minister said. 'Benchmarking ourselves with best universities across the globe is the only way we can set standards in education.'

Dr. Somaraju, Chairman and MD of Care Hospitals; Gullapalli Nageshwara Rao, Founder of L. V. Prasad Eye Institute; Dr. Jagannath, Chairman, Department of Surgical Oncology, Lilavati Hospital and Research Centre; Sujatha Rao, former secretary, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare; Dr. Balamba, prominent gynaecologist and other health department officials were present.