Nadda Opens 10 Critical Care Blocks, 12 Public Health Labs in Andhra Pradesh

Union Health Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda on Monday inaugurated 10 Critical Care Blocks and 12 Integrated Public Health Laboratories in Andhra Pradesh, in an event attended by Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu and the state's Minister for Health, Family Welfare and Medical Education, Satya Kumar Yadav, along with legislators, officials and healthcare professionals.

The Critical Care Blocks are located at GMC Kadapa, ACSR GMC Nellore, GMC Srikakulam, AMC Visakhapatnam, GMC Ongole, District Hospital Anakapalli, GMC Rajamahendravaram, KMC Kurnool, District Hospital Hindupur and SMC Vijayawada. The Integrated Public Health Laboratories are at Area Hospitals in Seethampeta, Guntakal, Palamaner, Aganampudi, Nandigama, Chirala, Araku, Narasaraopeta, Banaganapalli, Anaparthy, Tuni and Gudur.

Describing the inauguration as more than an infrastructure milestone, Nadda said the two categories of facilities represent complementary strengths of a resilient health system — the ability to save critically ill patients and the ability to detect and respond to disease threats before they escalate into public health emergencies.

He recalled that the COVID-19 pandemic showed how swiftly a health emergency can turn into an economic, social and national crisis, and said the experience underlined that health security is national security. During the pandemic, routine hospital infrastructure had to be converted into isolation and COVID-care facilities, disrupting non-COVID essential services, he noted.

It was against this backdrop that the Pradhan Mantri Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission (PM-ABHIM) was conceived, to strengthen the health system's capacity to respond to future pandemics while maintaining continuity of routine care. Nadda said hospitals can no longer be assessed only by bed count, and that a resilient system needs critical-care capacity, oxygen and medical-gas systems, isolation facilities, trained manpower, laboratory capacity and early outbreak detection.

Under PM-ABHIM, the Centre has sanctioned 631 Critical Care Blocks across states and union territories. For Andhra Pradesh, ₹1,271.80 crore has been approved for the five-year scheme period across four components — Critical Care Blocks, Integrated Public Health Laboratories, Urban Ayushman Arogya Mandirs and Rural Ayushman Arogya Mandirs. The state has 24 sanctioned Critical Care Blocks with an estimated investment of about ₹606 crore, planned across government medical colleges, district hospitals and area hospitals. Nadda stressed that critical care must be available close to the community.

On the laboratory front, 26 Integrated Public Health Laboratories have been sanctioned for Andhra Pradesh with an allocation of ₹32.50 crore. Civil works on all 26 are complete; 14 are already functional and the remaining 12 were inaugurated. Nadda described laboratory capacity as a component of national health security rather than merely a diagnostic service, adding that a health emergency cannot be fought effectively if it is not detected early.

He said the PM-ABHIM vision spans all levels of care — Ayushman Arogya Mandirs at the grassroots, strengthened primary and community health centres for referral and secondary care, Critical Care Blocks for district-level emergency and intensive care, and Integrated Public Health Laboratories for diagnostics and surveillance. This, he said, reflects a shift from a hospital-centric approach to a health-system approach.

Nadda placed the transformation in the context of the National Health Policy, 2017, which he said marked a move towards a preventive, promotive and comprehensive approach, creating stronger linkages between preventive, primary, secondary and tertiary healthcare. He also praised Andhra Pradesh's Sanjeevani programme for taking healthcare to people's doorsteps and facilitating testing for 41 health parameters, and noted that more than 1.75 lakh Ayushman Arogya Mandirs have been established nationwide.