The Tamil Nadu government will establish a population health registry and health IT platform, and assign a Unique Health ID to all residents, Health Minister Ma. Subramanian said in the Assembly on Thursday.
The Unique Health ID will improve the State Health Index and help in achieving sustainable development goals, he said. He listed the decisions that the government had taken, including counselling to be given at all government medical college hospitals to children suffering from “internet addiction” and audiology tests to identify deafness among newborns at government medical college hospitals. Dementia clinics would be opened at all district headquarters hospitals as part of the geriatric mental health programme. Cognitive rehabilitation daycare centres would be established at all medical college hospitals for the elderly and mentally ill patients.
All geriatric patients admitted to government medical college hospitals would be screened for cancer. “A committee of international and national mental health experts will be constituted to draft a policy to address the mental health needs of the homeless and ultra-vulnerable groups,” he said.
To reduce the incidence of suicide, training in counselling would be conducted in coordination with NGOs, he said.
Maternity care
Maternity care services would be provided at labour wards and maternity operation theatres of all government medical college hospitals and government hospitals at a cost of ₹6.31 crore under the LaQshya programme of the Union government. Blood banks would be established exclusively for the comprehensive emergency obstetric newborn care centres of 11 government medical college hospitals at a total cost of ₹5.50 crore. A total of 17 RT-PCR equipment would be procured at a cost of ₹5.10 crore and supplied to laboratories for identification of the COVID-19 infection.
Digitalisation of the Civil Registration System data for the years from 1969 to 2018 would be done at a total cost of ₹75 lakh. Geographical Information System mapping and enumeration of slums and vulnerable population would be done in 14 Corporations at a cost of ₹71 lakh, he said.
All health and medical staff members would be trained for early identification of deafness and sound proof rooms would be established at the government medical institutions at a total cost of ₹4.22 crore. The Tamil Nadu Accident and Emergency Care Initiative (TAEI) Registry would be extended to all government medical college hospitals and other government hospitals at a cost of ₹1.56 crore.
The radio frequency identification devices would be supplied to the government medical college hospital in Madurai and the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital in Chennai at a cost of ₹2.08 crore to monitor the supply chain management of blood and blood products.
