On his first day as Health Minister for Telangana State, C. Laxma Reddy visited Gandhi Hospital on Monday, and observed that with the temperatures starting to rise, there is every chance of the number of cases of swine flu coming down in Telangana.

Isolation rooms and beds to treat swine flu patients have already been created at other teaching hospitals in Hyderabad including Niloufer, Fever Hospital and Osmania General Hospital (OGH), he pointed out. The Minister visited the isolation wards, interacted with paramedical staff and later held discussions with the superintendent and senior doctors on other issues in the hospital. He visited the mortuary and also saw toilets, felt that the hospital authorities have to concentrate more on sanitation. The hospital officials told him that plumbing and other works in toilets are old and have to be modernised.

He told the hospital staff to lay more stress on sanitation and promised to take up modernisation of the existing hospital mortuary and toilets. The idea of having an exclusive sanitation officer to look after the day-to-day sanitation activities was mooted in the hospital.