CHENNAI: Fourteen children with congenital heart defects will undergo specialised and advanced surgeries in government and private hospitals in Chennai free of cost under the Chief Minister’s Health Insurance Scheme (CMHIS).
Under the Centre’s Rashtriya Bal Swasthiya Karyakram (RBSK) programme, aimed at identifying birth defects in children aged from 0 to 18, a cardiac screening camp was held at the Stanley Government Hospital’s District Early Intervention Centre (DEIC) on Friday. The camp was inaugurated by the Dean of the Hospital Dr P Balaji.
Dr J Ganesh, Director of Institute of Social Paediatrics, Stanley GH, said a total of 40 children, mostly from very poor backgrounds, were screened and among them, 14 require immediate surgical intervention.
“These children will be referred to government and private facilities in the city and their treatment cost will be fully covered by the CMHIS,” he said.
Under this National Health Mission Project, the Stanley GH’s DEIC has held six screening camps and done 75 corrective heart surgeries.
Dr Ganesh said the children would be given advanced treatment such as open heart surgeries too, under this scheme. “While these 14 children will be referred for surgical treatment, the remaining children who attended the camp will be closely followed up,” he added.
Officials said that since the NHM and CMHIS cover many tertiary care hospitals, including private facilties, the children would likely be getting treatment even at private facilities such as Apollo Hospitals and MIOT free of cost.
To implement RBSK, the state has 34 DEICs provided with sufficient manpower including paediatricians, medical officers, dentists, physiotherapists, audiologists, speech therapists among many other technical support staff.
The scheme is also being extended to local bodies with the Chennai Corporation having 15 mobile health teams to identify children.