A slanging match over health care in TN

Chennai: Leader of the Opposition Edappadi K Palaniswami and State Health Minister M Subramanian indulged in a slanging match over the condition of the health care system in the State by both coming out with their own lists of failures and successes of the department during the DMK regime.

It started with Palaniswami issuing a statement on Wednesday, hitting out at the DMK government for not providing quality health care to the people. He listed instances of medical negligence in government hospitals since 2022, starting with the case of a 17-year-old football player.

Replying to the allegations of Palaniswami, the Minister for Health and Family Welfare said that improvement of health care in the State had won recognition from all over and the United Nations had bestowed an award on the State for the Chief Minister’s ‘Makkalai Thedi Maruthuvam’ (Health care at the doorstep) scheme.

Enumerating the various schemes relating to health care that were launched by the present DMK government, Subramanian said the awards given away by the Union Government were testimony to the development of health care systems during the past three years.

He said that of the total 614 National Quality Assurance Standard Certificates won by the State so far, 545 were given after the DMK government came to power and of the total 84 LAQSHYA (Labour Room Quality Improvement Initiative) awards, 55 came the State way when it was under the present DMK government.

Subramanian said that the number of people visiting Government hospitals had gone up under the present regime that had ensured quality medical treatment was provided to the people, who were deprived of it during the 10 years of AIADMK rule in the State.

Referring to the long list of medical negligence cases cited by Palaniswami to point out the failure of the DMK government, the Minister said that if he were to present a list of such cases reported during the AIADMK regime, it would turn out to be very long and exhaustive.

He said that Palaniswami was playing cheap politics with the only purpose of running down the DMK government without realizing that he was finding fault with the medical services that were helping the poor and needy people as he was driven by jealousy over the good work of the present government.

Palaniswami, however, pointed to the various controversies in the health department including an attendant of a patient stabbing a doctor at the Guindy Government multispecialty hospital leading a strike by doctors that cost another life.

The Leader of the Opposition said that he was only pointing out the lapses in the health department that were not being addressed or looked into by the Health Minister, who was only keen on contradicting him through his replies. Among the long list of other lapses he pointed out were one on the government failing to crack down on a YouTuber for posting a video of him cutting the umbilical cord in social media.