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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu

State plans to have more healthcare institutions

Special Correspondent

The aim is to ensure each district has at least one medical college, says Health Secretary V. K. Subburaj

CHENNAI: The government plans to increase the number of healthcare institutions across the State in phases so that each district will have at least one medical college, Health Secretary V. K. Subburaj said on Sunday.

Speaking after presenting the “Dr. K. S. Sanjivi Awards-2008” to eight doctors and two medical institutions, he said Tamil Nadu was among the first States to realise the mistake of not opening more healthcare institutions to cope with the increasing disease burden.

The awards have been instituted by the Confederation of Indian Organisations for Service and Advocacy (CIOSA) and ‘Udhavum Ullangal.’

The Health Secretary said it was proposed to start five more State-run medical colleges, of which the one at Dharmapuri may begin admission this year. The other colleges have been planned at Villupuram, Tiruvarur, Sivaganga and Perambalur. These will add to the 14 government medical colleges and seven private colleges in the State.

Lauding the awardees, “who have performed beyond their call of duty,” Mr. Subburaj said the country required the selfless service of a larger base of medical officers at a time when incidence of cancers, diabetes and heart disease was rising.

India accounts for at least 10 lakh of the 1 crore new cancer cases every year and 10 lakh neonatal deaths of the 40 lakh infant deaths occurring worldwide.

As against the one lakh renal failure patients who require transplants each year, only 20,000 transplants are being performed.

The Health Secretary commended the exemplary work being put in by the vast network of 1,417 primary health centres. The work initiated by the PHCs in Vellore, which undertook 11,000 deliveries, including Caesarean section, and those in Nagapattinam where the spectrum of services to pregnant women included the traditional “bangle ceremony,” had earned this year’s Dr. Sanjivi awards.

In fact, the functioning of PHCs in the State, especially those in the northern districts, had become a healthcare model for other States, Mr. Subburaj said.

J. Srinivasan, Mentor-Director, TTK Group, said the community service rendered by the selfless doctors had to be evaluated against a scenario in which a candidate had to spend around Rs. 60 lakh and seven years to earn an MS degree. T. E. Surendran, vice-chairman, Sankara Nethralaya, said he was delighted that one of the awardees, A. V. Sripriya, was totally involved in ophthalmic surgeries being done free of cost for patients. The institution performed 45 of the 170 ophthalmic surgeries free of cost.

The other awardees were C. M. K. Reddy, vascular surgeon at Halsted Surgical Clinic, (Lifetime Achievement); S. M. Chandramohan, head of surgical gastroenterology, Government Royapettah Hospital; Jyotsna Murthy, chief of plastic surgery, Sri Ramachandra Medical Centre; P. Ramanathan, Government Headquarters Hospital, Karur; V. Bharathi, civil surgeon, government hospital, Sholingur; S. Vetriselvi, PHC, Thirupoondi; S. Raja Sekaran, deputy director, Health Services, Vellore; and V. Shankar Kumar, Lions Hospital, Chennai.

The institutions chosen for the honour were Ashwini Charitable Society in the Nilgiris and the Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement.

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