THANJAVUR: Tamil Nadu will see a string of 708 urban hospitals, modelled on Delhi’s Mohalla Clinics, going operational from February.
Construction of 500 urban hospitals announced in the last budget is already over, said health minister Ma Subramanian on Tuesday. In each of the 708 hospitals, there will be a doctor, a pharmacist and an assistant, he said. He was talking to reporters after participating in the event organised to celebrate the completion of 1,000 free cleft lip and palate surgeries done through the NGO SmileTrain India at Meenakshi Hospital in Thanjavur.
The recruitment of staff for these hospitals is under way. He said the chief minister would inaugurate them in the first or second week of February. Of the 12 such hospitals to be set up in Thanjavur district, eight will be in Thanjavur corporation area, three will be in Kumbakonam and one in Pattukkottai municipality, official sources said.
According to Ma Subramanian, of the 25 new primary health centres (PHCs) proposed in the state, one is coming up in Thippirajapuram village in Thanjavur district. The minister also inspected a newly-built PHC at Maharnonbu Chavadi area in Thanjavur.
Work for the hospitals planned on the lines of Delhi’s Mohalla Clinic has been completed in a short span of 10 months. Stalin had visited Delhi Government model school and a Mohalla Clinic in East Delhi along with Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal on April 1, 2022, during his three-day visit to the capital. The CM was impressed by the reach of such clinics and wanted to replicate the idea in Tamil Nadu.
Clinics for 12 services including maternal and child care
According to a health department official, Urban Health and Wellness Centres (HWCs) are equivalent to Mohalla Clinics. The clinics will provide 12 services namely, maternal and child health, adolescent health, communicable and non-communicable diseases services, Ears, Nose, and Throat, palliative, and ophthalmic care.
Earlier speaking at the function, the health minister said under the ‘Innuyir Kappom Thittam-Nammai Kakkum 48’, launched in December 2021, 1.39 lakh people had benefitted so far, and the government had spent Rs 123 crore. Those injured in road accidents, irrespective of their domicile statuses, are bring provided up to Rs 1 lakh for treatment for the first 48 hours at 670 designated hospitals under the scheme, the minister said.
CM to inaugurate in first or 2nd week of feb
Construction work for 500 urban hospitals announced in the last budget by the DMK government is already over. There will be one doctor, a pharmacist and an assistant in each of the 708 hospitals.