Health minister C Vijayabaskar makes 108 announcements, sets record

CHENNAI: Health minister Dr. C. Vijayabaskar attempted to break yet another  'Guinness' record by making yet another 108 announcements in the Assembly on Tuesday.

Winding up the debate on the demand for grants for his department the Minister rushed through the announcements as though syncing with the government's 108 emergenc ambulance service. This is not the first time Dr Vijayabaskar had made so many announcements during the Budget session. He had done so twice in the past.

The minister thanked Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami for 'permitting' him to make 108 announcements for the third time in the Assembly.

Among the announcements were included a Centre of Excellence to be established at the Institute of Mental Health, Chennai, at a cost of Rs 25.41 crore to improve Mental Health services, a new initiative - Inter Facility Transfer (IFT) system to be implemented across the State with 120 Adult Retrieval Vehicles (ARV) for the transportation of critically ill patients from Government Hospitals to tertiary care hospitals at a cost of Rs 19.20 crore, a world class Drugs Testing Laboratory for Madurai at a cost of Rs 20 Crore and Point of Care Testing (POCT) Lab for 25 Emergency Rooms of 23 Government Medical College Hospitals, Government Royapettah Hospital, Chennai, and Egmore Children Hospital, Chennai at a cost of Rs 2.77 crore, under 'Tamil Nadu Accident and Emergency Care Initiative (TAEI) Programme.'

Also, to ensure uninterrupted power supply at the district hospitals, taluk and non taluk hospitals, the government would provide them generators and inverters based on requirement at a total cost of Rs 21 crore. Additionally two hundred Dialysis machines will be supplied to Government Hospitals and Medical College Hospitals at a cost of Rs 17 crores. He also announced the creation of health and wellness hubs with walk path, space for yoga, exercise facilities and accu-pressure walks, in 100 PHCs at a cost of Rs 10 crore and creation of corpus fund for doctors, staff nurses and other workers of the health department.

 Earlier during the debate, Dr Vijayabaskar said following overwhelming response to the Amma master health check-up scheme and Amma full check-up scheme for women, the state government has proposed to extend these schemes to three districts. The health minister announced that an international yoga and naturopathy centre would be established at a cost of Rs 92 crore on 50-acre land in Chengalpet to promote wellness tourism.