At present, 50 patients are on the waitlist for bone marrow transplantation, he said. The Minister said that the demand was high, but donor availability and awareness were less. “We need to create awareness and take it to the people. Like registering for eye and blood donations, we will create a permanent stem cell registry soon. People should come forward to donate,” he said, shortly after inaugurating a number of facilities at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (RGGGH).
He added that bone marrow transplantation was fully covered under the Chief Minister’s Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme. The post-transplantation expenses are also covered through the scheme.
Doctors explained that the public can register in the registry at 36 government medical college hospitals. Their samples will be collected and sent to the Institute of Child Health and Hospital for Children in Chennai for testing.
NalamAI, a WhatsApp Chatbot service, was rolled out for outpatient registration in 22 districts, while a facility to book outpatient appointments was earlier launched on a pilot basis at the Department of Respiratory Medicine at RGGGH. Now, this facility was expanded to all 32 departments of RGGGH.
Dr. Arunraj said that the main difference between a private and a government hospital is that of fixing appointments before visiting a private facility. In government hospitals, a situation prevails in which patients need to wait for three to four hours to see a doctor. It is to break this system that the service to book appointments was introduced. People should utilise the service as it would make it easy for them and for the hospital administration. Walk-ins were also allowed but prior appointments would make it easy, he said.
The Minister inaugurated various facilities at a cost of ₹15.73 crore, including through Corporate Social Responsibility contribution. This included a modern central diet kitchen, a cath lab with advanced equipment, an advanced maintenance haemodialysis centre, six renovated pay wards (airconditioned ‘diamond’ suites), upgraded endoscopy unit, post-anaesthesia intensive care unit, and C-arm machine for the orthopaedics department. He also interacted with bone marrow transplant recipients and donors.
On the dengue situation, he said that preventive measures were being taken across the State, while all hospitals were informed of a standard treatment protocol.