Health dept signs MoU with private hospital to prevent amputation due to diabetic foot

CHENNAI: A memorandum of understanding for diabetic foot podiatry surgery services was signed between the state health department and Ganga Hospital, Coimbatore at the Tamil Nadu Government Multi Super Specialty Hospital Complex in Omandurar on Tuesday.

The state health department aims at reducing the amputations due to diabetic foot and a project of establishing foot clinics is being implemented at a cost of Rs 1.05 crore in taluk hospital of Thanjavur district. The project detects foot injuries and blood vessel damage caused by diabetes at an early stage and prevents amputation.

The Podiatry Center was inaugurated at Thanjavur Government Medical College in October last year and as an extension of this, a pilot project to prevent amputations by identifying foot problems in diabetic patients and providing early treatment is being conducted to detect foot problems among 1,18,000 diabetic patients in Thanjavur district.

The health minister said that this is a unique scheme implemented in a Government Medical College for the first time in India. The surgery is performed to treat ulcers caused by loss of sensation in the leg and so far, 14 surgeries have been performed in Thanjavur until September 28th this year.

A new programme called StAMP -Stop Amputations is being implemented with a collaboration from General Surgery Department, Appendiceal Surgery Department and Vascular Surgery Department.

Regarding the same, the Government of Tamil Nadu has entered into an MoU today with Coimbatore, Ganga Hospital, which has expertise in this field. As an extension of the programme, podiatry centers will be started in all 36 medical college hospitals across Tamil Nadu.

The health minister said that the Tamil Nadu government has entered into MoU agreements with various private hospitals and private charitable organizations to provide medical facilities to more people.

“The MoU for Liver Transplant was signed between Rela Hospital, Stanley Hospital, Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital and Institute of Child Health in March last year and so far 6 liver transplants have been successfully performed at Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital and 51 liver transplants at Stanley Government Hospital. The MoU have also been signed for suicide prevention, training for psychiatric treatments, cancer screening, sickle cell anemia treatment, drug de addiction and rehabilitation and others,” he said.

With regards to special medical camps, he said that about 1,943 medical camps have been conducted across Tamil Nadu and 1,04,876 people have been benefitted by this. Of these, 335 people were diagnosed with fever, 254 people with cough and cold.

The doctors have demanded that the camps should not be held on Sundays and should be held on Saturdays. In this regard, after consultation with the health secretary and the Director of the Public Health and Preventive Medicine Department, it has been decided to hold the camps on Saturdays from the coming week.

Talking about the NEET exam, Minister of Youth Welfare and Sports Development Udhayanidhi Stalin has started a signature petition against NEET and everyone is supporting it in a big way. The Chief Minister is also highlighting the need for NEET exemption and a letter in this regard has also been given to the President.