A recent report by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) on the performance audit of Public Health Infrastructure and Management of Health Services in Telangana revealed a decline in Telangana’s overall Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) ranking, dropping from ninth in 2018 to eleventh in 2021-22. Specifically, the State’s ranking and score in SDG-3, which focuses on good health and wellbeing, fell from third place in 2013 to nineteenth in 2020-21.
The CAG report has unveiled numerous shortcomings and irregularities within the State’s health department. This comprehensive audit, which spans the period from 2016-17 to 2021-22, highlighted critical areas of concern. On the positive front, it noted an improvement in the State’s performance score from 61 in 2018 to 69 in 2020-21.
The Fixed Day Health Services (FDHS) programme, intended to provide comprehensive healthcare to rural communities, was found to be inadequately reaching the rural poor. Additionally, there were notable deficiencies in drug availability. For instance, of the 530 items required per the Essential Medicines List (EML) of 2015, only 396, 336, and 266 items were procured during 2017-18, 2018-19 and 2019-20 respectively. Similarly, of the 338 items required per the EML list of 2019, only 209 and 197 items were procured during 2020-21 and 2021-22 respectively.
The report also identified a significant shortfall in healthcare infrastructure. According to the 2011 Census, there should be 35,004 beds available for the population. However, government hospitals only had 27,996 beds, resulting in a shortage of 7,008 beds. This shortage was observed in all districts except Adilabad, Hyderabad and Hanumakonda.
One major issue highlighted was the significant disparity between the sanctioned posts and actual staffing levels in healthcare. As of March 2022, the highest vacancy rates were reported in the Directorate of Medical Education (56%), followed by the Institute of Preventive Medicine (54%), the Department of AYUSH (51%), Telangana Vaidya Vidhana Parishad (43%), the Directorate of Public Health (40%), the Commissioner of Health and Family Welfare (35%) and the Drugs Control Association (34%).
