All TIMS hospitals to be operational by June 2, 2027: Telangana CM

Hyderabad, Nover 13 (TNT): Telangana Chief Minister A Revanth Reddy has directed officials to make all Telangana Institute of Medical Sciences (TIMS) hospitals, the Warangal Super Specialty Hospital and the expanded Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) operational by June 2, 2027.

He also set December 2027 as the deadline for completing the construction of the new Osmania General Hospital and directed officials to ensure that medical services are made available to patients within a year.

At a high-level review meeting of the Medical and Health Department at MCRHRD Institute here on Thursday evening, the Chief Minister directed officials to complete hospital construction, recruitment of doctors and staff, and procurement of medical equipment simultaneously to ensure that the facilities become operational within the stipulated deadlines.

The Chief Minister called for a unified recruitment policy for doctors and other staff in the three TIMS hospitals in Hyderabad.

He also directed officials to establish a mechanism for transferring doctors and staff among the hospitals based on requirements. Medical professionals would be engaged from external sources and funds released immediately until permanent recruitment was completed.

Stressing better utilisation of existing facilities, Revanth Reddy directed officials to make full use of TIMS Sanathnagar to handle the increasing surgical workload at NIMS.

Patients could be shifted to the Sanathnagar facility whenever NIMS faced a shortage of beds or delays in conducting surgeries.

He asked the Health Department Principal Secretary and the directors of NIMS and TIMS to maintain regular coordination.

The meeting also decided to entrust hospital maintenance and housekeeping to outsourcing agencies.

Group-I officers would be appointed to oversee TIMS facilities, while retired military personnel would supervise housekeeping staff.

The Chief Minister said doctors should concentrate on medical services, leaving administrative and maintenance responsibilities to designated personnel.

He directed officials to prepare an action plan for developing TIMS hospitals, establishing teaching and nursing colleges and procuring medical equipment. Biometric attendance was made mandatory in government hospitals, with instructions to record the arrival and departure timings of doctors and staff. Artificial Intelligence would also be used for monitoring purposes.

The Chief Minister reviewed the progress of recruitment and the establishment of 79 new dialysis centres. Officials informed him that 16 dialysis centres had already been established since the government assumed office.

Revanth Reddy noted that the coverage under the Rajiv Aarogyasri scheme had been enhanced from Rs 5 lakh to Rs 10 lakh per family. Nine medical colleges, 16 nursing colleges and 28 paramedical colleges had also been established in the last three years.

Officials informed the meeting that the number of beds in government hospitals had increased from 30,000 to 38,000 during the last three years. Outpatient numbers had risen from seven lakh to nine lakh, while inpatient numbers increased from 23 lakh to 24.30 lakh.

The allocation to the health sector had increased from an average of 3.9 per cent of the State budget in previous years to 4.8 per cent over the last three years.

As many as 13,401 vacancies, including doctors, nurses, ANMs and paramedical staff, had been filled, while recruitment for another 5,640 posts was under way.

Emphasising the government’s priority to public healthcare, the Chief Minister assured that adequate funds would be released to the Health Department to complete the projects and strengthen medical services.

State Health Minister Damodara Raja Narasimha, MP Vem Narender Reddy, Chief Minister’s Secretary Manik Raj, Principal Secretary for Health Christina Z Chongthu, TGMIDC Secretary Gaurav Uppal, Commissioner of Health and Family Welfare Musharraf Ali Faruqui, R&B Secretary Ilambarithi, NIMS Director Rahul Devraj and TIMS Director Narender, among others, attended the meeting.

TNT TS