Minister for IT, Municipal Administration and Industries, today laid foundation stone for a 50-bed Palliative Care Center at Khajaguda on theNanakramguda Road under Serlingampally Mandal. The new center will come up in one acre land which the State Government allotted to Sparsh Hospice on 33-year lease.
Speaking on the occasion, KTR responding to appreciation showered on him for getting the land allocated at a record time, said jovially, “The praise was so much it looked like a retirement function for me. And let me state here that I don’t have any plans to retire in the immediate future”. He appreciated the Trustees of Sparsh Hospice in pursuing for the land allocation for the construction of 50-bed hospital. “However fast we politicians want to do, we cannot do sometimes, because of bureaucracy, who considers us as guest artistes, because they believe that we are in power only for five years and they remain in office till their retirement. That is why sometimes works do not happen as fast as we wanted even if Chief Minister also instructs. We too feel strongly to live up to our promises and get ‘shahbas’ from you by keeping up our promises. But, sometimes because of the bureaucracy we fail to do so. Bureaucrats respond and treat us too differently. If they know that the party is going to come back to power, the treatment is different, if not, the treatment is different”, he said on a lighter note.
Speaking earlier, Founder and Chairman of Shantha Biotechnics and Governing Board Member of Sparsh Hospice Vara Prasad Reddy sought government intervention to ease out the stringent rules laid down in usage of Narcotic Drugs in Cancer Pain Management and using drugs like Fentanyl Patches. Fentanyl Patch when used on the body reduces pain for 72 hours. Because of stringent rules, it has been taking months for the medicine to reach to the patients and they are dying due to pain. “Though some States like UP, Kerala, Maharashtra simplified the rules, the Telugu States have not done much. KTR asked them to circulate the orders of the States which have simplified the rules. And he assured that Telangana State too would pass GO in helping manufactures reach patients in time and mitigate their pain.
Dr Vara Prasad Reddy donated Rs one crore, Prabhakar Rao and Kusuma Kumari couple donated Rs 25 lakh in the loving memory of their son Sridhar, who died of cancer in 2014 towards construction of new facility, which will be raised at Rs 7-crore donations. Dr Ramesh Babu, Chairman of Rainbow Hospitals, donated Rs 30 crore towards medical equipment.
Ranga Reddy District Collector Raghunandan Rao, Dr M. Subrahmanyam, founder trustee and Dr Pranathi Reddy, President of Rotary Club of Banajara Hills also spoke.
CEO of Sparsh Hospice Ram mohan Rao said construction for the 50-bedded Hospice centre will be completed fast. The trustees of Sparsh Hospice appealed to philanthropists to come forward and donate to run Sparsh Hospice as well as for the construction of 50 bedded new center. Such donations can be made in favour of “Rotary Club of Banjara Hills Charitable Trust” or pay online www.sparshhospice.org.