Andher Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Thursday launched a first of its kind family-doctor programme across the state with an aim to provide medical facilities to the rural poor at their doorstep.

Addressing a gathering at Chilakaluripet Mandal in Palnadu, Jagan Mohan Reddy said, “You don’t have to visit doctors and hospitals. We have brought this family-doctor concept for the benefit of the poor so that no poor person will suffer due to lack of medical treatment. Diseases can be detected at an early stage with the help of a family doctor,” he said.

The unique family doctor programme is modelled upon the concept of a family physician to establish a preventive care system for the rural poor and to make affordable and high-quality medical services accessible to them.

Implementation of the chief minister’s vision of affordable and quality healthcare required an overhauling of the medical infrastructure in the state. The state government recruited around 47,639 medical professionals including technical and nursing staff and general physicians and filled all existing vacancies. In addition, 96 per cent of vacancies for specialist doctors have also been filled up.

Explaining the programme, the chief minister said it is also expected to strengthen the screening of non-communicable disease and gather data on the various diseases that are prevalent in villages such as diabetes, hypertension, vitamin deficiencies and more serious ones including  cancer and heart-related problems.

Accordingly, a total of 910 mobile medical units, and 10,032 village health clinics (VHC) have been set up.  A village health clinic will have one auxiliary nurse and midwife (ANM), one mid-level health practitioner & 3-4 Asha workers for every 2000 people in a village. A VHC will be equipped to conduct 14 kinds of diagnostic tests and 105 kinds of medicines will be made available.

Each mandal will now have 2 Primary Health Centers (PHCs) and each PHC will be provided with two doctors. While one will take care of outdoor patients at the PHC the other doctor will visit the mapped village health clinic with mobile medical unit (MMU) twice a month according to a schedule on rotation basis. Each doctor will look after a maximum of 6-7 villages and visit the same VHCs every month. The medical officer app will digitally capture the details of diagnosis, issue of drugs and ensure follow up for management of non communicable diseases.

In addition, the ‘family doctor’, along with the health team, will visit Anganwadi Centers to conduct antenatal and postnatal checkups and ensure the provision of good quality food to pregnant women, lactating mothers and children. This will help in creating awareness about taking good nutrition and the precautions to be taken in case of high-risk pregnancies. Similarly, school visits will ensure regular checkups for the children for early detection of health issues and provide necessary treatment. Apart for treating pregnant mothers and school children the ‘family doctor’ will also visit bedridden patients.

The chief minister also spoke on the YSR Aarogyasri scheme. “Today, it is a proud moment for me to state that under the YSR Aarogyasri scheme, which was started by my father, today, there are 2,261 empanelled hospitals across the state which are serving people free of cost. Around 35,71,596 people have received treatment through the scheme,” he added. Along with YSR Aarogya Aasara under which post-operative sustenance allowance is provided the government has spent a total of Rs. 10,000 Crore on the two schemes.

Reddy expressed hope that the unique programme of family doctor will serve as a model for the entire nation and that other states will soon follow suit.