Tirupur: The AIADMK government has opened 254 new primary health centres (PHC) across the state in the past seven years, health minister C Vijayabaskar said here on Thursday. He was in the city to inaugurate a new PHC at Uppilipalayam at Karaipudur panchayat.
“In the past one year alone, 30 new PHCs have come into existence. This is in addition to making avilable 44 CT scanning machines, 18 MRI scanning machines and 9 cancer diagnosing machines,” he said, adding, “We have plans to set up at least one government medical college a year and Tirupur government hospital will be considered to be upgraded as medical college soon.”
The health minister said the government has allotted Rs 20.64 crore to the district, which will soon get a maternity centre at a cost of Rs 24 crore. The 30-bed Uppilipalayam PHC is expected to serve more than 50,000 people of Uppilipalayam and Arulpuram areas.
Later in the day, Vijayabaskar also inaugurated ophthalmic, trauma care and paediatric wards at Kolarpatti government hospital in Coimbatore district where he lauded the state government’s efforts to improve health care indexes. Pointing out that Tamil Nadu was a pioneer in healthcare of women and children, he said hence the state has achieved the targets for 2030 to reduce maternal mortality rates in 2012 itself.
The Kolarpatti government hospital is an example of the state government’s healthcare initiatives, he said. “The 30-bed primary health centre was upgraded to a government hospital with 20 more beds.’’ The new building has been built at a cost of Rs 75 lakh to house heart, ophthalmic, paediatric and trauma care wards, he said. tnn
