14 children to undergo heart surgeries free of cost under CMHIS

CHENNAI: Fourteen children with congenital heart defects, will undergo specialised and advanced surgeries at government and private hospitals in Chennai free of cost, under the Chief Minister’s Health Insurance Scheme (CMHIS). Under the Central government’s Rastriya Bal Swasthiy a Karyakram (RBSK) programme, aimed at identifying birth defects in children, a cardiac screening camp was held at the Stanley Government Hospital’s District Early Intervention Centre (DEI C) on Friday.

The camp was inaugurated by the dean of the hospital, Dr P Balaji. Dr J Ganesh, Director of Institute of Social Paediatrics, Stanley GH, said a total of 40 children, mostly from very poor backgrounds, were screened; and among them, 14 require immediate surgical intervention. “These children will be referred to government and private facilities in the city and the cost of their treatment will be fully covered by the CMHIS,” he said.

Under this National Health Mission (NHM) project, DEI C has held six screening camps and performed 75 corrective heart surgeries. Ganesh said that the children would be given advanced treatment such as open heart surgeries too under this scheme. “While the 14 children will be referred for surgical treatment, the remaining children who attended the camp will be closely monitored , ” he added.

Officials said that since the NHM and CMHIS cover many tertiary care hospitals, including private facilities, the children would likely receive free treatment even at private facilities such as Apollo Hospitals and MIOT.

To imp l ement RBSK, the State has 34 DEI Cs with sufficient manpower including paediatricians, medical officers, dentists, physiotherapists, audiologists, speech therapists and other technical support staff. The scheme has also been extended to local bodies with the Chennai Corporation having 15 mobile health teams to identify the children.