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In a sweeping move to overhaul accountability across public medical institutions, the Andhra Pradesh Health Ministry is transitioning from system-based assessments to a strict individual-based evaluation model for all government doctors and healthcare staff.
Moving away from traditional institutional tracking, the state will now analyze the monthly performance of individual doctors, nursing staff, lab technicians, radiographers, and other technical cadres against normative standards.
The directive follows a high-level review meeting chaired by the minister for health, family welfare and medical education, Satya Kumar Yadav, to address gaps between upgraded infrastructure and actual healthcare delivery. The minister expressed serious concern that while attendance and vacancy filling have improved significantly between 2024 and 2026, these metrics have not translated into a corresponding rise in outpatient (OP) and inpatient (IP) volumes. Most notably, the ministry flagged a declining trend in hospital deliveries despite extensive equipment upgrades and staff training. To reverse this trend, the Directorate of Medical Education (DME), Directorate of Secondary Health (DSH), and Directorate of Public Health and Family Welfare (DPH&FW) have been ordered to continuously coordinate with field functionaries and '108' emergency services.
Under a reinforced 30-Point Action Plan for Government General Hospitals (GGHs), hospital authorities must now publish monthly performance reports and actively communicate complex surgery success stories to the media to improve public perception. The ministry also observed that despite running evening outpatient departments (OPDs) across all hospitals, patient footfalls remain critically low. In response, hospitals have been directed to give wide publicity to evening hours and establish robust tracking systems to monitor doctor-wise volume during these extended windows. To incentivize high performance, departments will begin identifying and honouring the ‘Best Employee of the Month’ among doctors, nurses, and core patient care cadres.
Alongside medical performance, the state is clamping down on poor hospital sanitation and security, where patient satisfaction is currently at a low 60 percent. To enforce discipline, the ministry has mandated the immediate implementation of the Facial Recognition System (FRS) for all outsourced sanitation, security, and pest control staff. Crucially, future vendor payments for these service contract agencies will be directly linked to performance outcomes, requiring a minimum 85 per cent positive rating via an automated IVRS patient feedback system.
The minister also stepped in to resolve localized administrative lapses that have left 448 outsourced employees without pay. A state audit revealed that 277 staff in DME institutions, 108 in Public Health institutions, and 63 under the National Health Mission (NHM) have experienced salary delays because their placement intimation letters were never communicated to the Andhra Pradesh Corporation for Outsourced Services (APCOS). Heads of departments have been ordered to coordinate with the General Administration Department (GAD) to ensure the immediate disbursement of these pending wages. To prevent future administrative backlogs, the ministry has placed an absolute freeze on piecemeal outsourcing recruitments across all unit offices, mandating that any essential future services be routed strictly through established service contract agencies.
To ensure system-wide readiness ahead of the seasonal peak, the Health Minister further directed the public health and medical education directorates to submit immediate follow-up reports on expert committee findings regarding Melioidosis and Scrub Typhus (monsoon-driven bacterial infections). The department will launch aggressive, door-to-door fever surveys and extensive anti-larval operations across all habitations, leveraging inter-departmental coordination with the local bodies and fisheries departments to curb vector-borne diseases.
In tandem with these clinical and administrative reforms, the state health ministry has also proposed major restructuring changes for regulatory enforcement and food safety officers under the draft Presidential Order 2025. To prevent key personnel from being confined to small geographic zones, the state has recommended shifting the posts of Drug Inspectors, Food Safety Officers, and Junior and Senior Scientific Officers from the localized Zonal Cadre to the Multi-Zone Cadre. This structural shift aims to maximize field-level enforcement across the state's pharmaceutical hubs, matching strict national standards and eliminating regional administrative delays.
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