Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Mansukh Mandaviya on Sunday said that the Centre has allocated over ₹2,600 crore towards health for Tamil Nadu under the National Health Mission and ₹404 crore for medical infrastructure advancement in the State under the Pradhan Mantri Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission.
Mandaviya was on a two-day visit to Tamil Nadu and Puducherry during the weekend. Earlier on Sunday, he visited the Tamil Nadu Government Multi Super Speciality Hospital in Chennai and witnessed the Robotic Surgery Facility and Early Pregnancy Screening Centre located at the hospital.
Later, addressing a gathering, Mandaviya said the Tamil Nadu Government Multi Super Specialty Hospital is the only centre with two surgeon consoles and congratulated the state for achieving the goal set for Maternal Mortality Rate and Infant Mortality Rate well ahead of the rest of the states.
Vaccine coverage
The Minister commended Tamil Nadu’s vaccination coverage and noted that vaccination in the State had reached 11.26 crore doses with 94 per cent inoculated with first dose and 82 per cent with second dosage.
He also highlighted that 75-lakh people covering 1.58 crore families in Tamil Nadu have availed the benefits under the Ayushman Bharat Yojana, a national health protection scheme. Under the Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centres programme, so far 7,052 Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centres (as on June 2022) are functional in the State against the target for 9,135 centres till December 2022.
Mandaviya also highlighted that around 50,000 patients suffer from Tuberculosis in Tamil Nadu. Speaking about the Nikshay Mitr Abhiyan (a TB Patient/Village Adoption’ scheme), he appealed to the people to extend their support to this scheme as only 5 per cent of them have given consent, while 35 per cent have not accepted it as yet.
“Only with your support, like in Covid, can we overcome this hurdle to the nation’s progress”, he reiterated.
The Union Minister also virtually laid the foundation stone of CGHS Wellness Centre and Lab at Avadi, says a release.