Punjab to soon formulate health care policy for poor: Badal

Mohali, Nov 26 (UNI) The Punjab government would soon formulate a health care policy to cater to the needs of the poor patients who could not afford treatment for deadly and incurable diseases like Cancer and AIDS, Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal said.

The new policy would have an inbuilt and mandatory feature of free treatment to at least 25 per cent economically disadvantaged patients in the private and super-speciality hospitals.

While addressing after inaugurating Ivy Hospital Cancer Research Institute at Sector 71 here today, Mr Badal said that the state government would subsidise the super-speciality hospitals by way of giving concessions on the land to promote the concept of the welfare of poor patients.

Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister urged the management of Ivy Hospital to set up another cancer hospital in the Malwa Belt since this region is afflicted with high incidence of cancer disease due to the poor quality of drinking water.

Mr Badal appreciated the management of Ivy Hospital for giving free treatment to the poor cancer patients holding yellow cards. However, Mr Badal said, ''Initially the management of such hospitals display their charitable and philanthropic spirit but once the institution is established they tend to forget these lofty ideals.'' Emphasising the need of early detection of cancer, Mr Badal asked the management of the hospital to regularly hold free medical check up camps in the rural areas to bring awareness amongst the people about the preventive care and treatment of the disease.

Earlier, in his welcome address, Ivy Hospital Chief Executive Officer Dr Gurtej Singh explained the vision of the hospital. He said that it was a state of the art 180-bed multi-speciality hospital with super speciality in Oncology and would be one of the largest hospital in private sector in the northern region.

He said that the hospital had tied up with leading American Company 21st Century Oncology to set up one of the most advanced cancer treatment departments.

UNI