A health card will be made available to people in Kerala aged above 30 years to keep lifestyle diseases in check, the state’s Health Minister Veena George said on Saturday, November 6. She was inaugurating a project by Ernakulam Member of Parliament (MP) Hibi Eden to provide free angioplasty surgery for 100 poor patients.
“We’ll do a campaign to set up a health centre in every panchayat where people above the age of 30 in each panchayat will be regularly tested (for lifestyle diseases). We plan to maintain a database with the help of MLAs, MPs and local self-governments for the purpose,” Minister Veena said.
Appreciating MP Hibi Eden for the project, the minister said people end up helpless in the face of a disease, with many forced to sell their homes to meet the treatment expenses. She also spoke of the newly launched liver transplant facility at the Government Medical College in Kottayam. “The real villain in all these diseases is lifestyle. Diabetics, blood pressure and other lifestyle diseases are dangerous and we saw how they can affect one during the COVID-19 pandemic,” the Minister added.
She also said that the government will initiate programmes to showcase the high quality health facilities in the state for people from other parts to make use of, and promote health tourism.
Hibi Eden’s ‘Hridayathil Hibi Eden’ project was inaugurated at the Indira Gandhi Cooperative Hospital in Ernakulam’s Kadavanthra, in association with Karunya Hrudayalaya, a chain of cardiac centres, and Soukyam Charitable Society. The MP said that 40 patients will be provided a pacemaker (device used on heart patients to maintain a steady heart rate) for free, in association with a Rotary Club.
Those who wish to register for the project may contact 0484-3503177. From the applications received, a medical board headed by former District Medical Officer Dr Junaid Rahman will select 100 deserving patients to undergo free angioplasty surgery. The surgery will be performed under the guidance of intervention cardiologist Dr Nigil Cletus of the Indira Gandhi Cooperative Hospital.