Ma Subramanian presents key achievements of TN health dept at Harvard

CHENNAI: State health minister Ma Subramanian on Tuesday gave a presentation on the efficient health systems and achievements of the state health department at the prestigious Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

The minister spoke about the state's primary healthcare and promotive health systems, its model drug procurement and distribution system, and flagship schemes such as Chief Minister's Comprehensive Health Insurance, the 'Innuyir Kappom-Nammai Kakkum 48', Makkalai Thedi Maruthuvam, and the Varumun Kappom Thittam.

He stated that the Chief Minister's Comprehensive Health Insurance scheme has reached out 14 million beneficiaries between July 2009 and June 2024 with claims approved for Rs 136.25 billion. Out of the total beneficiaries, 4.32 million people received care at government hospitals with claims amounting to Rs 49.45 billion.

Speaking about the 'Innuyir Kappom-Nammai Kakkum 48 'scheme, the state health minister said that cashless and free emergency medical treatment for all road traffic accident victims irrespective of nationality was provided. 2,52,981 patients availed cashless treatment on an assurance mode for an amount of Rs 2.21 billion, he noted.

On the 'Varumun Kappom' scheme, Ma Subramanian stated that preventive health check-ups were done in camp mode that included 25 screening tests focusing on common communicable and non-communicable diseases, facilitated by 17 specialists, benefiting a total of 36,69,326 people up to 2023-24.

He added that the 'Idhayam Kappom' scheme that provides emergency loading cardiac doses orally at the health sub-centres to prevent deaths due to heart attack has benefitted 8,500 patients in a year who had suspected cardiac symptoms. He also noted that since September 2023, more than 200 funerals of organ donors have been held with state honours in Tamil Nadu.

Discussing the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, the state health minister said that it impacted home-bound patients with non-communicable diseases (NCDs) as they could not continue their daily treatment resulting in poor NCD control and increased number of deaths among NCD patients with comorbidities like hypertension and diabetes. To address this crucial challenge, the 'Makkalai Thedi Maruthuvam' scheme was launched to provide the delivery of drugs at home, he noted.