In a landmark decision aimed at transforming regional healthcare, the Telangana government has announced a major policy shift to provide comprehensive super-specialty medical services within district-level teaching hospitals. This strategic move seeks to permanently end the long-standing practice of routinely referring patients from across the state to the already overburdened tertiary care hospitals in Hyderabad.
The Burden of Referrals and a New Vision
For years, patients requiring advanced treatment at district hospitals were frequently sent to major Hyderabad institutions like Osmania, Gandhi, and NIMS. This system placed immense strain on the capital's healthcare infrastructure while imposing severe travel, accommodation, and financial hardships on low-income families from rural and semi-urban areas.
Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy recently challenged this established practice, questioning why cases were being sent to the city when capable facilities exist in the districts. He highlighted that many districts already have critical care units, ICUs, dialysis centres, and modular operation theatres, and called for the full-scale implementation of super-specialty services locally.
Leveraging a Robust Medical Education Network
The state is uniquely positioned to execute this plan due to its significantly expanded medical education infrastructure. Telangana now has 36 government medical colleges, a dramatic increase from just five before the state's formation. Over the past five years, several new colleges have been established, producing approximately 4,240 MBBS graduates annually.
The teaching hospitals attached to these colleges function as general hospitals and are staffed with qualified faculty including professors, associate and assistant professors trained across various specialties. These include medicine, surgery, gynaecology, paediatrics, cardiology, neurology, nephrology, and gastroenterology. Despite this depth of expertise, gaps in advanced infrastructure, specialised equipment, and uneven staffing have historically forced referrals to Hyderabad.
The Plan for Decentralised Super-Specialty Care
To bridge these gaps and realise the vision of accessible advanced healthcare, the government has outlined a multi-pronged strategy. The plan involves fast-tracking the recruitment of specialist doctors, nurses, technicians, and biomedical engineering personnel for district hospitals.
Simultaneously, hospitals will be equipped with advanced medical infrastructure such as catheterisation labs (cath labs), endoscopy units, and neuro-diagnostic equipment. A key component of the initiative is the strict enforcement of revised referral protocols. These protocols will ensure that only cases requiring highly specialised intervention beyond district capacity are sent to Hyderabad, while all treatable cases are managed locally.
The initiative is expected to yield significant benefits: substantially easing the patient load on Hyderabad's major hospitals, drastically reducing out-of-pocket expenses for patients and their families, and ensuring more equitable access to quality healthcare for all citizens of Telangana, whether in rural or urban areas.
