The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Centre will set up medical park at Chengalpattu college: Anbumani

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Tuesday, Dec 23, 2008
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Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Centre will set up medical park at Chengalpattu college: Anbumani

Special Correspondent

Starting January, food labelling will become reality in the country

Proposal to introduce yoga as a compulsory exercise in schools
Children will also be subjected to health
check-ups once a year

CHENNAI: The Central government will set up a medical park at the Chengalpattu Medical College for world leaders in the diagnostics industry to produce cheaper equipment, Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss said on Sunday.

Launching the Tambaram branch of Bharat Scans, Dr. Anbumani said it was proposed to extend a host of incentives to encourage investments on the 250-acre park from leading manufacturers and the only caveat for them was that 80 per cent of the products had to be made available only in India.

Among the initiatives planned under national preventive healthcare programme was a proposal to introduce yoga as a compulsory exercise in schools and to introduce health issues as a subject in the curriculum. Children would also be subjected to health check-ups once a year to catch any disorder early, he said. The government also proposed to make it mandatory for all Central government staff to undergo health screening once a year, bring in the Clinical Establishments Act to set standards for hospitals and clinical laboratories and strengthen telemedicine initiatives to reach quality care to the rural and remote regions, Dr. Anbumani said.

Starting January, food labelling would become reality in India where all edible packs would have to mandatorily indicate the nutritional value along with the list of ingredients, the Minister said.

Stating that he wished to be remembered more for the push he was giving to the National Rural Health Mission than for his crusade against tobacco, Dr. Anbumani pointed to the huge success of the programme, which earned accolades from international organisations such as WHO and UNICEF as the fastest-growing public health initiative anywhere in the world, as an indicator of the public’s growing confidence in public health infrastructure.

If in Bihar, visitors to a government institution increased substantially in the last three years, in Tamil Nadu, the number of deliveries at Primary Health Centres had tripled, he pointed out.

The government would continue to make substantial investments in the public health infrastructure in line with the steep increase in the allocation in the Eleventh Plan of Rs. 2,700 crore as opposed to the Rs. 280 crore in the previous plan, the Minister said.

Dr. Anbumani also urged the medical fraternity to adopt rational prescription of medicines, especially anti-biotics and infusion blood.

A. Rajasekaran, president, National Board of Examinations (NBE), said the NBE as an autonomous body providing an alternative qualifying route for candidates who could not make it to medical colleges.

The NBE currently organised courses in 54 broad and super specialities.

D. K. Srinivasan, honorary founder secretary Hindu Mission Hospital, A. Gajanan Rao, chairman, Gajanan Hospitals, cardiology consultant V. Chockalingam, R. Emmanuel, managing director, Bharat Scans, R. Prabhu Radhan, who will manage the Tambaram branch, and P. Karuppasamy, former professor of surgery, Madras Medical College, spoke.

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