5 lakh awaiting organs in TN, says health Minister

All of them were honoured by the Health Minister C Vijaya Baskar. Ministers Vellamandi N Natarajan and S Valarmathi and others were present on the occasion. The Health Minister claimed that the state is the front runner in India to have a large number of organ donations for two consecutive years. He pointed out that Tiruchy is getting an equal number of organ donations compared to that of Chennai.

The Minister further said that the number of donors in the state is increasing day by day. Presently, there are as many as 1,028 donors in the state and this is because of frequent awareness programmes held across the state. “So far, 5,773 organs have been harvested and successfully transplanted. If awareness increases further, more would be benefited as nearly 5 lakh people are waiting for an organ, according to the Tamil Nadu organ donation registry,” the minister said.

Stating that the number of seats in KAP Viswanatham government medical has been increased from 100 to 150 this year, the Minister said there are plans to introduce post graduate courses in Orthopaedics in Tiruchy government medical college.

Further, he added that about Rs 10 crore has been allotted for infrastructural development in the government hospitals in the district.

Later, the minister said that 3,112 students from state board had cleared NEET this year. He said that the government will soon try to arrange for a special coaching for state board students to appear for NEET this academic year.

K Rajamani, District Collector of Tiruchy stated that the standard of government hospitals in the state has improved and they are on a par with private hospitals, especially when it comes to performing organ transplants and renal surgeries. Later, the District Collector distributed funds worth Rs one crore from the district welfare fund to the Health Minister for maintenance of the government hospital in the district.