HYDERABAD

Deputy Floor Leader of Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) in Telangana Assembly T. Harish Rao criticised the State government for allowing only the out-patient (OP) services at Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences (TIMS) in Sanathnagar, instead of making it operational with full-fledged services, including the in-patient treatment.

Mr. Rao said on Monday (August 17) that it was unfortunate that a health facility developed with ₹1,000 crore was being limited only for the OP services and just change of name of the hospital would not alter the facts about who planned the facility and who constructed it. On the lines of claiming credit by giving appointment letters to employees selected during the BRS rule, the present government publicised the inauguration of TIMS as its own hard work.

It was the former Chief Minister K. Chandrashekhar Rao who planned three super speciality hospitals on three sides of the city, Alwal, Sanathnagar and L.B. Nagar, to extend corporate-level super speciality healthcare services to the poor and took up construction and almost completed them by the time the BRS government demitted the office.

With 1,000 beds each, the construction of three hospitals was taken up with ₹2,679 crore. It was after the Congress government assumed office it had changed dates and deadlines several times for their inauguration. Along with the three TIMS, the BRS government had also taken up a multi-super speciality hospital at Warangal and a 2,000-bed block in NIMS, but the government was delaying them too.

Meanwhile, working president of BRS K.T. Rama Rao expressed joy over the TIMS becoming available for extending healthcare services to people, at least partially, as it was conceived to provide corporate level super speciality services to the poor.

In a statement, he said it was during the KCR regime that three TIMS were planned and construction was taken up. The Sanathnagar TIMS alone has 1,000 beds for in-patients, 300 ICU beds and 16 modular operation theatres, organ transplantation department, MRI, CT scan, x-ray, cath lab, radiology, dialysis centre and other departments/facilities under one roof.

It would provide quality healthcare services not only to the poor of the city but also those from the rural areas (districts).