Inkeshaf Ahmed
In a move designed to benefit close to one crore senior citizens of Telangana, the state government has decided to open special clinics for them. The clinics will be held at all primary health centres of the state once in a week.

The doctors at the clinic will conduct clinical examination of the senior citizens, including any clinical tests, if required, and arrive at a conclusion about their health condition. The doctors will then prescribe medicines to the senior citizens, if they have an ailment. The authorities of the health department of the state will distribute the medicines at the same clinics. If the doctor at the clinics is of the opinion that the senior citizens require better treatment, they would be referred to the nearest area, teaching or district hospital for providing sophisticated and super specialty treatment.

The health department authorities are planning to hold training program for the doctors and para medical staff who will be appointed at these Centers to offer their services to the senior citizens. The training program is expected to be held in the month of March. The equipment required for these clinics would be procured by the authorities on behalf of Telangana State Medical Services and Infrastructure Development Corporation.

“The clinics will be set up on a pilot basis in rural areas of ten districts of the state. Based on the feedback and experience gained from the pilot project, the clinics will be extended to other districts in a phase wise manner. We will set up these clinics in all PHCs and Community Health Centers (CHCs) of the state,” an official of the health department told DTMT.

The districts which have been selected for the novel initiative are Karimnagar, Nalgonda, Mahbubnagar, Ranga Reddy, Adilabad, Wanaparthy, Yadadri Bhongir, Nizamabad, Sangareddy and Warangal.

According to the officials of the health department, the central government is willing to give funds for addressing problems, especially psychological problems, suffered by the senior citizens of the country.

They add that they would implement the proposed program by tapping the funds from the central government.The authorities of the health department of the state government have decided to hold training programs for its doctors and staff in the field of psychology as part of their plans and prepare their doctors.