Hyderabad,  The Telangana government will be offering free diagnostic services to poor at government-run hospitals in 19 district headquarters in the State from June 9.

These diagnostic centres can conduct 57 types of tests including some speciality and expensive tests which were hitherto conducted in corporate hospitals and three major government hospitals in Hyderabad.

The tests to be conducted at diagnostic centres include Covid tests, blood and urine tests and the tests related to diabetes, hypertension, cardiac ailments, orthopedic, liver, kidney, thyroid and x-ray.

The centres were to be launched from June 7 but this has now been postponed to June 9. Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Sunday said all the ministers should be present at the launch on the same day and same time.

The State Cabinet meeting, scheduled on June 8, will decide which minister should be present at the launch of which diagnostic centre.

The diagnostic centres have come up in Mahbubnagar, Nizamabad, Sangareddy, Medak, Jangaon, Mulugu, Mehboobabad, Bhadradri Kothagudem, Jagtial, Siddipet, Nalgonda, Khammam, Sircilla, Vikarabad, Nirmal, Karimnagar, Adilabad, Gadwal and Asifabad districts.

KCR, as the chief minister is popularly known, said the decision to set up 19 diagnostic centres at the district headquarters is a landmark one in the history of medical and health sector in the State.

"Medical treatment is becoming more and more costly for the people. The poor are forced to sell their properties to get the treatment. The cost of diagnostic tests became more than the disease. People are forced to go to private diagnostic centres for tests," he said.

KCR said diagnostic Centres will also be set up in other places in a phased manner. He claimed that this move demonstrates the government's commitment to public health. He asked ministers, MLAs, local body representatives to coordinate with the medical and health department officials and ensure better medical care is given in their respective constituencies to the people.

These diagnostic centres launched during the Corona pandemic time would render major help to the people and suitable name would be given to these centres, he said.

The chief minister said the government has also made arrangements to send the results of the test reports to the patients' mobile phones.

Very expensive equipment with state-of-the-art technology is installed at the centres. These include fully Automatic Immunoassay analyzer, Five Part cell counter, fully automatic urine analyzer. Along with these, ECG, 2 D Echo, Ultra Sound, Digital X Ray and other such imaging testing units were also provided. The CM said that the officials informed him that these testing equipment work very fast and they produce 400 to 800 reports per hour.

"There are four types of expenses for the medical treatment. The transport expenditure to reach the hospital, doctor's fee, medicines, diagnostic tests, expenses for the inpatient, if discharged transport charges to come back home and in case of death, funeral expenses. The government is bearing all these expenses and offering free services to people in the government hospitals.

For the emergency services, the government is running 428 ambulances under 108 services. As many as 300 vehicles are already in operation for pregnant women under Amma Vadi Scheme, where the pregnant mothers are transported free to the hospitals and back home after the delivery.