Kerala - Kozhikode   

NGOs to give free food at hospitals

Special Correspondent

Part of Government's hunger-free Kerala project

KOZHIKODE: More voluntary organisations have come forward to give free food to patients and their bystanders in the Government hospitals here.

The offers were made at a meeting of representatives of voluntary agencies and attended by Electricity Minister Aryadan Mohammed here on Saturday.

The Government was actively considering a proposal to give cooking gas free of cost to the agencies that are ready to distribute food in Government hospitals. This was stated at the meeting of voluntary agencies called to discuss the Government's hunger-free Kerala project under which free food is to be given in Government hospitals.

Mr. Mohammed said that there would not be any restrictions on the entry of representatives of voluntary agencies into hospitals. Special passes will be issued to them for that purpose. Easier admission to hospitals is only one of the measures that the Government was considering for NGOs that render service in hospitals, he said.

The Minister said such incentives and concessions were being considered by the Government since beneficiaries of the free-food programme had been found to be the poor and the common people who could not afford to go to private hospitals for treatment. The Government already had a scheme to give free food to the poor in hospitals. But this scheme had to be expanded. A number of bystanders with patients had been found to be in need of free food. The present Government plan was to enable them also to get food free of cost with the support of voluntary agencies.

Participants in the meeting were told that at Kozhikode medical college hospital alone, nearly 5,000 patients and their bystanders were in need of food every day. St. Vincent D. Paul, CH centre, ISM, Medical Aid Centre, Seva Bharati and RG Oil were among the organisations that distributed free food packets among patients. But more agencies had to support the free food scheme.

Representatives of Seva Bharati announced at the meeting that their agency was ready to give free breakfast and lunch for 200 patients and their bystanders at the Hospital for Women and Children at Kottaparamba. Folowing this Calicut Chamber of Commerce and Industry volunteers offered to supply food in the night.

In the district hospital at Beach, nearly 800 persons needed food. St Vincent D Paul, which was giving 40 food packets, offered to give 60 more everyday. The Hotel and Restaurant Association has offered to give free food for one month to the remaining 700.

District Medical Officer V.K. Krishnankutty, Additional District Magistrate P. Koyakutty and representatives of political and social organisations were also present at the meeting.

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