State-of-the-art hospital in Vijayawada provides free medical services
The perennial burden of accumulated revenue loss and fresh challenges posed by the pandemic-induced lockdown notwithstanding, the Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) has made efforts to ensure good health of its employees by providing them adequate medical services.
The corporation’s central hospital at Tarnaka in Hyderabad in the composite Andhra Pradesh catered to the medical needs of more than one lakh employees and their families. After bifurcation, the APSRTC started working from Vijayawada as its headquarters and discharged its administrative duties from the NTR administrative block on the premises of Pandit Nehru Bus Station (PNBS). But drivers and conductors had to travel to the Hyderabad hospital for their medical needs.
Taking their ordeal into account, the APSRTC built a 50-bed state-of-the-art corporate hospital in 2.5 acres at Vidyadharapuram in Vijayawada at a cost of ₹15 crore in July 2017, with the the employees contributing ₹100 every month for two years.
“All medical services are available at the RTC hospital at Vidyadharapuram and the thrust is on quality,” said corporation Vice-Chairman and Managing Director Ch. Dwaraka Tirumala Rao.
Though the Employees Health Scheme cards had been given to the staff after the corporation’s merger into the government in January last year, APSRTC continues to provide institutional medical services as usual, he said. “Free consultation and medicines are provided here, a facility not available in other government departments,” said Mr. Rao.
The hospital comprises ICU, casualty and post-operative wards for emergency patients and is equipped with departments of general medicine, surgery, orthopaedics, gynaecology, dermatology, ophthalmology, ENT, paediatrics, radiology, pathology, dental and anaesthesia. Besides, consultant doctors in cardiology, oncology, urology and nephrology examine patients twice a month.
The hospital also conducts blood donation camps with the help of the Red Cross Society and encourages staff to participate in service activities. Helpline numbers (9494248897, 0866-2415206) had been introduced to enable employees to seek medical advice in case of an emergency. A separate building adjacent to the hospital caters to the night stay of the patients’ attendants who come from distant areas.
In addition to this, 18 dispensaries had been established across the State for RTC employees. “The corporation has engaged the services of 46 doctors who work at these hospitals, including the central hospital, across the State,” Mr. Rao said. The APSRTC also opened a dispensary at Tarnaka recently for its retired employees who have settled in Hyderabad.
“About 200 staff utilise the medical services daily and we try to give them the best services,” said D.V.S. Appa Rao, Chief Medical Officer at the Central Hospital in Vidyadharapuram.
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