Kerala - Pathanamthitta   

Society-oriented private medical projects welcome: Minister

Staff Reporter

Rural cardiac-care conference begins at Parumala

TRADITIONAL BEGINNING: Transport Minister Mathew T. Thomas inaugurating the two-day International Rural Cardiac Care Conference at Parumala in Pathanamthitta on Saturday.

PATHANAMTHITTA: Minister for Transport Mathew T. Thomas has said that the State Government has limitations in extending advanced healthcare facilities to rural areas, and hence, society-oriented medical projects in the private sector are welcome.

He was speaking after inaugurating a rural cardiac-care conference, said to be the first in the country, at Parumala on Saturday.

The Minister lauded the bold initiatives being taken by K.M. Cherian, cardiac surgeon, to extend modern cardiac-care facilities to rural Kerala.

Paulose Mar Milithios, Catholicos-designate of Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, presided over the inaugural function.

The two-day conference is being organised by the Chennai-based Frontier Lifeline, Dr. K.M. Cherian Heart Foundation and St. Gregorios Cardiovascular Centre, Parumala.

Dr. Cherian said the increase in number of patients from many foreign countries visiting the remote village of Parumala for cardiac treatment over the past two years was a testimony to the growth of health tourism in this part of the State.

Thomas Pezzella, Special Projects' Director of World Heart Foundation, said cardiovascular diseases had emerged as a major cause of death and disability in different parts of the world. In urban areas, there was more ready access to primary and curative health services. But much of the population remained in rural areas.

Presenting a paper, Meenakshi Gautham, public health consultant, stressed the need for a positive change in the medical education curriculum in India.

"Around 80 per cent of medical professional practice in the private sector is concentrated in urban, well-to-do areas at a time when the country's rural and urban poor population, which bear the greatest burden of mortality and disease, are left with little access to skilled and affordable medical care,'' Dr. Gautham said.

She said this kind of disparity could be attributed to the "critical gaps in the conventional and static model of medical education that we inherited from our colonial past,'' which had never been responsive to the country's actual health needs.

She said the undergraduate medical curriculum should be aligned with the public health needs of the country at the primary healthcare level, especially in rural areas. It needed a rural and social orientation.

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