The Thiruvananthapuram Medical College will have the much-awaited referral status from New Year, Health Minister V S Sivakumar said here on Sunday.
He said this while inaugurating the Diamond Jubilee valedictory celebrations of the Trivandrum Medical College and the International Health Summit.
Once the Medical College gets the referral status, the patients will be able to get expert treatment.
“Accordingly, only patients requiring expert treatment would be referred from Primary Health Centres (PHC), Community Health Centres (CHC), taluk hospitals and district hospitals to the Medical College,” Sivakumar said.
He also said that the government aimed at augmenting the facilities at the Medical College.
“The government had initiated several programmes in the health sector for the benefit of the people,” he said and added that some of the initiatives are the introduction of generic medicines and Mother and Child programme.
College principal Ramdas Pisharody, Dr D Vijayamohan and T P Sreenivasan were present among others at the function.
The two-day Diamond Jubilee valedictory celebration, nicknamed ‘DIAMOND MEDCON’ and the International Health Summit will see the best of the Indian medical diaspora from the USA, UK and Gulf countries.
Along with this, the 8th annual convention of the Trivandrum Medical College Alumni Association (TMC Alumni) was also inaugurated.
More than 1,000 health care experts including Educational Commission for Foreign Medical Graduates president and CEO Dr Emmanuel G Cassimatis, American Medical Association president Dr Jeremy Lazarus, American College of Chest Physicians former president Dr Kalpalatha Guntuppalli, American Psychiatric Association president Dr Dilip Jeste, Radiation Oncology professor, New York, Dr Dattatraeyudu Nori and clinical professor of Oncology, Pennsylvania, M V Pillai will participate in the conference.
Dr Cassimatis inaugurated the scientific session and Dr Jeremy Lazarus delivered the Diamond Jubilee oration.
The conference is jointly organised by the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI), Association of Kerala Medical Graduates (AKMG) and the Trivandrum Medical College Alumini Association.