8,713 women volunteers to be appointed under Makkalai Thedi scheme in State

With the programme involving field staff providing medicines and healthcare services to the people, more number of healthcare workers will be appointed, said a statement from the State Health department.

The field level committee of the project will consist of trained female health volunteers, intermediate health workers, mechanics and paramedics from the Tamil Nadu Women’s Welfare Development Corporation. The team will be led by field staff from the Department of Public Health.

In the first phase, 1,172 Government Health Centres, 189 Primary Health Centres, 50 Advanced Primary Health Centres and 21 Urban Primary Health Centers in each of the three selected corporations including Chennai, Coimbatore and Tirunelveli will be covered. In the next phase, the programme will be expanded to 335 government primary health care centres in all the other districts across Tamil Nadu.

As part of Makkalai Thedi Maruthuvam, medicines and treatment kits have been distributed to 2,35,432 persons with high blood pressure, 1,57,376 persons with diabetes and 1,07,902 persons with hypertension and diabetes both.

A further 17,066 persons were given palliative care therapy and 18,607 persons were given physiotherapy treatment. In addition, 58 kidney patients were provided with bags for self-dialysis. So far, a total of 5,36,441 beneficiaries have benefited from this scheme.