Kerala budget: All taluk hospitals to get dialysis facilities

Recognizing that people often do not have access to healthcare due to high cost of treatment, state govt, in this budget, promised to implement a new health insurance scheme for families outside the purview of Karunya Arogya Suraksha Padhathi (KASP).Under KASP, 42 lakh families in state receive free treatment. An amount of Rs 50 crore is earmarked in the budget for the scheme, and families can join this insurance scheme by paying a relatively small amount. Along with this, govt promised to conduct a pneumococcal vaccination drive among elderly. The programme targets persons aged 60 years and above from BPL families. Also promised are pain and palliative healthcare centres for elderly. An amount of Rs 50 crore is earmarked for this.Dialysis units will be set up in all taluk-level hospitals where there are no such facilities. Thus, Kerala will become the first state in India to have dialysis facilities in all hospitals up to taluk level. An amount of Rs 2.50 crore is earmarked for the scheme, Deceased Donor Multi-Organ Transplantation (Mritasanjeevani).To meet these targets and more, in the budget, plan allocation for medical care and public health sector increased to Rs 2,500.31 crore, which is Rs 350.12 crore (16%) more than the allocation of previous year. The budget also focuses on cancer treatment and construction and renovation of medical and paramedical college hostels for undergraduate and postgraduate students."All this looks good on paper, but at the moment there is a severe shortage of doctors and healthcare workers in govt sector. Unless that is addressed, no promise of healthcare can be fulfilled," said IMA state president Dr M N Menon. Meanwhile, Kerala Govt Medical College Teachers' Association called the budget "a grave betrayal of trust and grave injustice", and said medical college doctors were completely ignored.