Under the direction of Telangana Health Minister Eatala Rajender, the Department of Health and Family Welfare (Telangana) conducted a meeting involving a significant number of Residents Welfare Association (RWA) members on Friday. The meeting was aimed at formulating a joint strategy, in partnership with the residents’ community, to help take on the various challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
The meeting was attended by senior IAS officer Vakati Karuna, Commissioner of Health and Family Welfare Department, and Dr K Ramesh Reddy, Director of Medical Education, and other officials and representatives of RWA, which comes under UFERWAS (United Federation of Resident Welfare Associations).
During the course of the meeting, BT Srinivasan, General Secretary of UFERWAS, discussed the areas in which the residents can extend help and co-operate with the government. He shared some information on the various public health centres along with details of officers concerned, decentralised testing services at various community locations and counselling services at isolation centres.
A member of UFERWAS, Maj Shiva Kiran, said that the volunteers of the association would handle the call centre, where they would take up ward-wise home isolation monitoring. He also suggested that Corona Combat Initiatives could be initially taken up in 10-15 locations, where RWAs have a strong base, namely, Malkajgiri, Begumpet, Mehdipatnam, Kalyannagar, Tarnaka, Masab Tank, AS Rao Nagar, Kukatpally, Erragada, Motinagar, Nanakaramguda, Hi-tech City, Kushaiguda Medchal, Yapral, Sainikpuri and other locations.
Speaking at length about the issues on how the state has to co-habit with the virus, the Health Minister said the role of RWAs becomes very significant in keeping the spread in check. He said that the community and function halls could be used as isolation centres, under the management of the Health Department, with the active participation of UFERWAS.
Stating the importance of early detection of the disease, the Minister also appealed to people to take precautions and assured that support will be offered by the health department in the form of food facilities and medicine supply to the isolation care centres. The UFERWAS was further asked to educate the residents about the facilities that would be provided by the government.
At the meeting, Dr Srinivas Rao, Director, Medical and Health Services, also stated that all district medical health officers will work along with the respective RWAs and assured that mobile testing services will be provided as required. He also assured that government facilities at Gandhi Hospital, TIMS, Chest Hospital and King Koti Hospital were totally free and those wishing to avail hospital facilities could do so.
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