Hyderabad, May 20 (IANS): Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) leader and former health minister T. Harish Rao on Monday alleged that under the Congress government, Telangana diagnostic hubs are on the verge of closure.

He said that the diagnostic hubs set up by the previous BRS government to provide free diagnostic services to people have collapsed.

He said it was unfortunate that the system created by the previous government was destroyed by the Congress government in just five months.

The former minister said then chief minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao had set up 36 diagnostic centres across the state. He mentioned that 134 types of diagnostic tests were available to people free of cost at these centres.

Harish Rao said diagnostic hubs ensured that there is no financial burden on poor and common people to access quality medical tests but now they are struggling to survive.

The BRS leader claimed that the staff of these centres have not received salaries for six months.

This is proof of the neglect of public health by the Congress government, he said.

He demanded that the government pay salaries to doctors and other staff members serving at the diagnostic centres and take steps to ensure that these centres provide all diagnostic facilities to people

In 2021, the state government launched Telangana diagnostics hubs to provide quality diagnostic and imaging services free of cost to the public.

The hubs began their operations with pathological services and this was subsequently expanded to the imaging services.

Diagnostic services such as X-ray, ECG, MRI, ultrasound and CT scan were available at the hubs opened one each in district headquarters.