MoU inked with Gujarat-based trust for free cardiac treatment of 1,000 residents of state
GUWAHATI: A Memorandum of Understanding between Assam's Health and Family Welfare Department and the Rajkot-based Prashanti Medical Services & Research Foundation was signed on Saturday in the presence of Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, as per which the Sri Sathya Sai Heart Hospitals at Rajkot and Ahmedabad would conduct sophisticated heart surgeries upon 500 children and an equal number of adults belonging to the disadvantaged sections of the society, who will be requiring treatment within a period of two years, the term duration of the agreement.
Sri Sathya Sai Hospitals are run by the Prashanti Medical Services & Research Foundation, a charitable trust, and are the only hospitals in the country where heart surgeries are conducted entirely free of cost.
Referring to the signing of the MoU as a new era in the state government's relentless efforts at providing affordable healthcare services to the state's residents, the Chief Minister expressed his gratitude to the trustees of Prashanti Medical Services & Research Foundation for extending their services for the benefit of the disadvantaged sections of the society.
Stating that people from the financially disadvantaged background who suffer from heart-related ailments generally opt for conventional medicines over more effective surgeries due to the exorbitant amount of money required for the later, the Chief Minister exuded confidence that the joining of hands by the state government and the charitable trust would provide relief to a large number of families.
The Chief Minister said that under the agreement, while the entire cost of surgery and related treatment of patients would be borne by the charitable trust, the state government would bear the cost of traveling and miscellaneous expenditures of the patients and their attendants. Stating that since 2009, under an agreement with Narayana Hrudalaya, and which was later extended to local hospitals of Guwahati, till date more than 9,700 heart patients have availed free surgeries costs of which are paid by the state government, the Chief Minister said that the uniqueness of today's agreement is that the state government will not be paying a single penny for the medical services, except for the traveling and miscellaneous expenditures. This makes the agreement one of the kind in the field of healthcare services, the Chief Minister remarked.
The Chief Minister also requested the state's Health and Family Welfare Department and Prashanti Medical Services & Research Foundation to explore the possibility of training nurses from the Guwahati Medical College & Hospital's Department of Cardiology at the charitable trust's state-of-the-art hospitals at Rajkot and Ahmedabad.
Expressing his gratitude to Justice RM Chhaya, Chief Justice of the Gauhati High Court, for floating the idea of government of Assam joining hands with Prashanti Medical Services & Research Foundation, Sarma lauded his continuous efforts at the uplift of socio-economic status of disadvantaged sections of the society. The Chief Minister said that Chief Justice Chhaya's various social-sector initiatives such as 'Vidya Rath: Education on Wheels', aimed at imparting of elementary education to children who have been deprived of it owing to their families' poor financial conditions, would ensure that the people of Assam shall remember him for long time to come even after he demits the prestigious judicial office.
Assam's Minister of Health and Family Welfare Keshab Mahanta, Chief Justice RM Chhaya, Justices of Gauhati High Court N Kotiswar Singh and Suman Shyam, Principal Secretary (Health) Avinash Joshi and Managing Trustee of Prashanti Medical Services Foundation Manoj Bhimani were also present at the event, informed an official communiqué.
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