'Healthcare for poor on par with elite', CM launches 'Nalam Kaakum Stalin'
Launching the statewide 'Nalam Kakkum Stalin', a comprehensive and specialised health screening camp here, he said the sole objective of this initiative was to improve the health of the people.
Still from the Nalam Kakkum Stalin launch (Photo: Hemanathan)
CHENNAI: Chief Minister MK Stalin on Saturday launched the 'Nalam Kaakkum Stalin' — a comprehensive and specialised health screening scheme — and said the objective of his government was to ensure the provision of medical services to the poor rural masses on par with the educated urban elite.
Stressing the need to cover every single person under the initiative, Stalin assured that the beneficiaries of the scheme, under which 1,256 camps will be conducted across the State, would be ensured with the kind of medical services accessed by well-educated and affluent people in urban Tamil Nadu. "We will ensure that," the CM said.
Stating that medical infrastructure has been widely developed even in rural areas, Stalin said the intention behind organising such medical camps was to deliver healthcare to people who are unable to reach the hospitals. Appealing to the people to make good use of the scheme, the Chief Minister seconded the suggestion made by Dravidar Kazhagam president K Veeramani recently that patients visiting hospitals must not be addressed so, and said, "He (Veeramani) is right because everyone will have a minor problem in their body. We must not call them patients because of that. We must treat the people visiting doctors and hospitals as medical (health) beneficiaries. You (doctors) must approach the people visiting the camps as health beneficiaries."
Urging the doctors and health staff at the camps to treat the people visiting the camps with the same compassion and care they would treat the members of their family, Stalin also advised the elected representatives of the people, officers and media to educate the people about the camps to be held in various areas. Deputy chief minister Udhayanidhi Stalin, health minister Ma Subramanian, HR and CE minister P K Sekarbabu, MPs, MLAs and officials took part in the event. The Chief Minister also interacted with the people who underwent diagnosis and treatment at the health camps, which were launched simultaneously in other parts of the State by local ministers.
