AP Provided More than 3000 Free CT Scan Services Worth ₹138 Crore During Past 2 Years

The state government of Andhra Pradesh as part of making quality healthcare more accessible and affordable to the poor in the state has embarked on providing free CT Scan services across 9 district hospitals in the state. The government had provided more than 3000 CT scans worth ₹138.18 crore during the past 2 years since May 2016. Revealing this, Dr Poonam Malkondaiah, special chief secretary, state medical and health department, government of Andhra Pradesh said, so far the government had provided more than 3000 CT scan services to the poor people in the state and have saved ₹138.18 crore to the poor people. “As part of government’s initiative to make quality healthcare more accessible and affordable, the health department is providing free CT scan services across all major government hospitals in 9 districts of Telangana. This has had a huge impact on the health of the people as they have saved more than ₹138 crore on their medical expenses,” said Dr Poonam Malkondaiah.

According to healthcare experts CT scan is one of the expensive diagnostic tests that can incur a huge burden for the poor. Because of their poor economic and financial background many poor people are unable to afford these essential CT scan tests. “Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu has identified that CT scan diagnosis is causing a great financial stress on the patients and to alleviate this problem, the AP government had come forward to provide this expensive test free of cost,” informed the special chief secretary. To begin with, the state government has launched the CT scan free diagnosis service in 9 out of 13 districts in the state. For this the state and central governments have collaborated together and invested their respective share to provide free services to the patients. Healthcare experts say that compared to MRI scans, the CT scan provides definitive results in detecting diseases effectively. However it costs more than ₹1516 in private hospitals, while now the patients can avail it free of costs without paying any money in all major government hospitals. – PharmaBiz