Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Shot in the arm for health

Thiruvananthapuram: The government has hiked the allocation for health education and research in the State Budget 2008-09. The outlay for them is Rs.30 crore this year, up from Rs. 13 crore in 2007-08. The provision made for the Indian Systems of Medicine has been hiked from Rs.5 crore to Rs.16.5 crore.

Aid for primary and secondary health care centres will be from the National Rural Health Mission. In 2008-09, Rs.133 crore would be spent from this scheme.

The Finance Minister has allocated Rs. 2 crore for the immediate operationalisation of the Speciality Block at Kozhikode Medical College. A public laboratory would be set up in Kannur at Rs. 70 lakh. The Kozhikode Medical College will get an Indian Institute of Sports Medicine, for which Rs.1 crore has been allotted. One crore has been set aside for starting the Indian Institute of Diabetes at Kozhikode. The Regional Institute of Ophthalmology at Kozhikode gets Rs. 50 lakh, the same as Para Medical Council, to be established this year. For building hostels in medical colleges and renovating existing institutions, Rs. 3 crore has been set aside.

A Spine Surgery Unit will be set up at Thiruvananthapuram, at a cost of Rs. 50 lakh. A modernisation plan for Kerala State Drugs and Pharmaceuticals, at Rs. 20 crore, would be taken up. Oushadhi, another PSU manufacturing of Ayurvedic drugs, gets Rs. 2 crore. The Finance Minister also sanctioned Rs. 10 lakhs to the EMS Memorial Cooperative Hospital in Padanna. The model community health hospital at Uzhavoor, which was announced in memory of the late K. R. Narayanan, former President, has been allocated Rs. 25 lakhs.

Dr. Isaac announced a novel scheme under which lunch would be provided to people at Rs. 2. The programme, will be implemented in Kozhikode town on an experimental basis, to be operated from the kitchen in Medical College Hospital. The scheme, to be initiated with the support of voluntary agencies and sponsors, has been modelled on one running successfully in Udaipur in Rajasthan.

The Finance Minister has also set aside an amount of Rs. 15 crore , to be deposited as corpus fund in the treasury, for providing medical assistance to children affected by cancer.

He also announced that voluntary agencies, which come forward with schemes to rehabilitate those discharged from hospitals with chronic diseases, would be provided monetary help. There would no longer be destitutes’ wards like the ‘ward 9’ at General Hospital, Thiruvananthapuram, anymore. At least one NGO, which offers rehabilitation, would be recognised an linked to every Medical College hospital.

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