Chief Minister Oommen Chandy has directed the Health Secretary to consider setting up a 10-bed special wing at the Government Medical College Hospital here for treatment of haemophiliacs.
Treatment centres on the lines of that at the Christian Medical College, Vellore, will be opened, Mr. Chandy promised 30 haemophilia patients who had been invited by him for an Onam feast.
He was responding to a plea by the patients to address the problems faced by hospitals in the State in providing treatment.
The possibility of setting up special facilities at the government medical college hospitals in the capital city, Kottayam, and Kozhikode should be explored so that treatment similar to that available at Vellore can be made available, Mr. Chandy told the Health Secretary. If needed, doctors should be entrusted with the task of visiting Vellore, he said.
The recommendations should be submitted in 10 days. Then a decision would be taken in consultation with the Ministers of Finance and Health, Mr. Chandy said.
He said directions would be given to issue medicines in advance even if financial aid for treatment from the Karunya Benevolent Fund crossed Rs.1 lakh. Permission for this could be sought before one sought treatment the next time.
He said the Cabinet had earlier decided to make available lifelong unlimited treatment benefits to haemophiliacs from the Karunya fund irrespective of their above the poverty line or below the poverty line status.
The Chief Minister and his wife Mariamma Oommen partook of the feast with the haemophiliacs and their families. Mr. Chandy gave away new clothes for Onam to the children in the group who have haemophilia.
He was presented with a memento from the Haemophilia Society of Kerala.
