Special child-friendly wards would be set up in district/general hospitals and the medical college hospitals for the treatment of children below 18 years of age, Health Minister P.K. Sreemathy has said.
She was inaugurating a new building of the Child Development Centre (CDC) on the Medical College campus here on Thursday.
She said that the government had in the past three months spent over Rs.2 crore for providing free treatment to children with diseases like cancer, under the schemes ‘Thaalolam' and ‘Asha Kiranam.'
Facilities
She said that the CDC, from being a follow-up centre for babies with neuro-developmental delay had now grown into a national-level centre focussing on early development of children, adolescent care and youth welfare, providing clinical care as well as developing research programmes.
The new building of CDC will combine 15 speciality units for child and adolescent care as well as research and training divisions for various distance education programmes. The building has been constructed at a cost of Rs.9 crore with assistance from NABARD.
Law Minister M. Vijayakumar presided over the function. Health Secretaries Manoj Joshi and Usha Titus, CDC founder-director M.K. C Nair, Planning Board member Mridul Eapen and senior health officials were present.
