Tamil Nadu Govt Launches 'Amma Mini Clinics' To Provide Healthcare Services To Poor

Chief Minister Edappadi K Palaniswami on Monday, December 14, inaugurated 2,000 'Amma Mini Clinic' across the state to ensure essential and timely healthcare services are being provided to the underprivileged.

According to NDTV, the clinics have been named after late former Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa.

Each facility will have a doctor, a nurse and an assistant to help with public consultation. People with minor ailments such as cold, fever and headache would be able to get treatment in the mini-clinics. It is significant to note that state-run hospitals have been reportedly over-crowded amid the coronavirus outbreak and such clinics would help reduce the burden.

"Two thousand mini-clinics have been opened simultaneously all over Tamil Nadu," the Chief Minister said while inaugurating one of the facilities in Chennai.

"We have chosen areas where people from poorer sections of the society live to establish these mini-clinics. We want to ensure a healthy Tamil Nadu and these mini-clinics will go a long way in realising the dreams. We do not want poor people to spend even a few hundred rupees for consultation or treatment," he added.

Reports have mentioned that up to 100 patients are likely to visit each clinic per day, according to the officials privy to the matter. Additionally, more doctors would be hired depending upon the requirements.

The clinics will be open in the morning between 8 am to 12 pm and later in the evening between 4 pm to 8 pm. It would comprise of a well-illuminated room — a minimum of 200 square feet in the own/rented building and a separate waiting area/examining room. Apart from these, a mini pharmacy to store medicines, minor surgical equipment and other necessary items will be set up near these clinics.

"The clinics will serve as the first stop for people suffering from fever, cold, and flu without having to knock at the doors of a private hospital or a government tertiary care hospital. Our aim is to establish such clinics in every areas so that people can access them even by walk," J Radhakrishnan, Principal Secretary (Health), told Deccan Herald.

Notably, the mini-clinic initiative comes at a time when the state and its key political parties have started gearing up for the 2021 assembly elections.

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