Hyderabad: Harish Rao lauds doctors for operating on babies with cardiac issues

Hyderabad: Telangana health minister T Harish Rao on Saturday lauded the surgeons who successfully operated on 9 children with cardiac issues in Nizam’s Institute Of Medical Sciences (NIMS). 

Dr Ramana, a London-based doctor, who is a native of Jagtial has performed the surgery along with this team from London. 

Speaking on the occasion, Harish Rao congratulated the doctors and said, “Dr Ramana is a well-known doctor in London and he approached us with a desire to serve his people. He also wanted to technically strengthen the medical staff of the state.” 

Dr Ramana’s team provided training to the medical staff here and operated on 9 children with cardiac issues in the NIMS hospital, said the minister. 

Speaking at the event in NIMS, Harish Rao said that 1 in every 100 babies is born with cardiac issues across the world, “In Telangana, every year, 6 lakh babies are born and 6000 of them have cardiac issues. Out of them, at least 1000 of them need surgeries”. 

“Due to the limitations in government hospitals and not having enough money to get the surgeries done in private hospitals, many babies from poor families die,” he added. 

To address the crunch in funds, Harish Rao said that, with the help of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) funds and equipment from the government, a cardiothoracic department with an ICU, operation theatre, and other facilities has been established.-

Harish Rao further appealed to NRI doctors to extend their expertise to serve the people of the state.

“Dr Ramana and the team have operated on 9 kids and all the surgeries have been successful,” said the minister. He said that these kinds of surgeries have been performed previously in AIIMS, Delhi only. 

Harish Rao stated that the government is developing super specialty hospitals in the state using Rs 6,000 crores.

“To help the poor, our chief minister has introduced many super specialty hospitals around Hyderabad. Also, Warangal super specialty hospital, a 24 storied building will be ready by the end of this year, and we will inaugurate it on Dasara. We will also expand NIMS hospital with another 2000 beds. Along with this, we will also add new blocks to Gandhi hospital,” said the minister.

Talking about medical seats in the state, Harish Rao said that Telangana stands first in the country in the number of MBBS seats, with 19 MBBS seats per 1 lakh population. “The state also has 7 PG medical seats per 1 lakh population and this is the second highest in the country. We are planning on expanding these numbers,” he added.