Mobile Dental Service Vans For Telangana Villages

Telangana Health Minister Dr C Laxma Reddy today said that the Mobile Dental Health Services (MDHS) programme would be extended to the villages of the state in order to cater to the dental health needs of the rural people.

Health camps for promoting awareness on various issues of dental hygiene and health would also be taken up, he said.

The minister launched the MDHS vans by flagging them off at Peoples' Plaza on Necklace Road. He also inspected the vehicles and conducted a dental check-up on a medical student.

The vans which form part of the broader Social Dental Services Program will operate under the guidance of the Osmania Medical College. Each vehicle is air-conditioned and has two in-built operation theatres.

Speaking on the occasion, the minister said that the vans were meant to provide a bouquet of health services to the people including dental health check-ups and operations, tests, and distribution of medicines to patients. He said that previously the rural people used to avoid dental health check-ups due to a lack of awareness or resources or both, but that with the implementation of the mobile dental health services which would take these services to every village and to every door-step, that issue could now be solved.

He also said that for 59 years dental students had had no means of transport to reach out to the masses, with priority always being given to medical students over them, but that the situation had changed thanks to the current government which gave equal priority to both medical and dentistry students.

The minister also said that it was for the first time in the history of the state that a government had implemented initiatives like mobile vans, bike ambulances, winged vehicles and vaccination vehicles, and said that the government's vision behind taking up such programmes was its commitment to the goal of a healthy Telangana.

He also credited Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao, who he said had strongly prioritised health and medical care in the state by providing adequate funds. The CM had agreed to increase funding for the health sector in the next Budget, too, Reddy added, and said that officials had already been issued directives to plan the necessary allocations.