Puducherry: The Health Department has been providing assistance to poor patients to undergo surgeries or take treatment in specialty hospitals outside Puducherry.

The assistance rendered through the "Medical Relief Society" formed some seven years ago, has been meeting a major chunk of the charges that corporate and leading hospitals levy.

Health Minsiter E. Valsaraj, chairman of the society, handed over on Wednesday assistance ranging between Rs.56,000 and Rs.94,000 to four patients.

The aid is given in the form of cheques drawn in favour of the hospitals, where the patients will take treatment or undergo surgery in Chennai. The Health Minister told reporters that the Government had earmarked Rs.4 crore during the current fiscal (2007-2008) to the society as against Rs.2 crore in the last fiscal.

A "no objection certificate" was necessary from the local Government hospitals to confirm that the patients could have surgeries or treatment only outside the Union Territory. When the scheme was launched, the Centre provided Rs.50 lakh to constitute the funds.

Later on, the Centre's grant came down to Rs 25 lakh, and the burden on the Government increased to maintain the fund. Now, the Central fund had totally been stopped and the State Government had to meet the full expenditure from its own sources.

Mr. Valsaraj said that the beneficiaries should have resided in Puducherry for at least five years and should have ration cards and other certificates of identity to prove their nativity or residence. The annual income of the person should not exceed Rs. 24,000.

Health status cards had been distributed to all the residents in Mahe and Yanam regions, and nearly 70 per cent of the residents had been covered under this scheme in Puducherry and Karaikal regions. Very soon there would be a cent per cent coverage. These cards would enable the persons to take treatment on priority and through special counters instead of being part of the general queues in the hospitals.

The Government was distributing the cards free of cost to each person. The total population of the Union Territory was approximately 9.5 lakh.

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