Ongole and Nellore government hospitals get 50-bed critical care blocks

Two 50-bed critical care blocks (CCBs) at the government general hospitals (GGHs) in Ongole and Nellore were inaugurated on Saturday, with officials stating that the facilities will be opened to the public within two weeks.

Chief Minister Nara Chandrababu Naidu, Union Minister J.P. Nadda and State Health Minister Satya Kumar Yadav inaugurated the blocks virtually. Each block was built at a cost of ₹23.75 crore, funded jointly by the Central and State governments.

At Ongole GGH, the block was inaugurated by State Social Welfare Minister Dola Sree Bala Veeranjaneya Swamy, along with Ongole MLA Damacharla Janardhana Rao, Santhanuthalapadu MLA B.N. Vijay Kumar, Joint Collector Kalpana Kumari, A.P. Tourism Development Corporation Chairman Nookasani Balaji, PDCC Bank Chairman K. Sitaramaiah and BJP district president S. Srinivasulu.

Speaking at the event, Minister Swamy said the CCBs had been set up across the State to provide immediate, high-level emergency medical care to patients in life-threatening situations. He said they would be fully operational for the public within the next two weeks.

"Equipped with modern technology and comprehensive facilities, these centres are expected to be immensely beneficial to the poor. The primary focus of the alliance government is to provide good medical care to the underprivileged," he added. These are the Minister's stated claims, and the facilities' actual operations will be evident once they open to patients.

At Nellore GGH, Joint Collector Mogili Venkateswarlu and TDP spokesperson Kotamreddy Giridhar Reddy inaugurated a 50-bed CCB, also built at a cost of ₹23.75 crore.

Addressing the gathering, the Joint Collector said the CCB was a highly beneficial development for the people of the district. He said the facility would play a vital role in providing comprehensive emergency critical care services to patients involved in road accidents, particularly at night, women requiring emergency deliveries, children needing immediate medical attention, and people suffering from heart attacks or other severe medical conditions.

Critical care blocks at district hospitals are part of a wider national effort to strengthen emergency and intensive care capacity at the district level, with funding shared between the Centre and the States. Such units are intended to reduce the need to move critically ill patients to larger cities for treatment, a common difficulty in districts with limited intensive care beds.

Public health infrastructure in Andhra Pradesh has been under discussion for several years, with government hospitals often reporting heavy patient loads and shortages of specialists and intensive care beds. Officials said the two new blocks are additions to this network, though independent details on staffing, equipment supply and maintenance arrangements were not provided in the statements made at the inauguration.

The two-week timeline for opening the facilities to the public was given by the Minister for Ongole and by officials at Nellore. Whether the blocks begin admitting patients as stated, and how they are staffed, will be watched closely by residents of both districts.