Kerala health minister to visit Delhi today

Thiruvananthapuram: Health minister V S Sivakumar will fly to New Delhi on Friday to meet Union science and technology minister Harsh Vardhan and demand more funds for Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute of Medical Sciences and Technology.
Sivakumar will also demand scrapping the raise in charges for various lab and treatment facilities at the institute."I will request the Centre's intervention to resolve the financial crisis faced by one of the premium healthcare institutes in the state. The state government will see to it that the Centre releases more funds. We want healthcare and research to go hand in hand," he said.
He said the increase in fees could severely affect the common man and the government would not accept limiting the institute's facilities to the affluent. The state government had provided the land for the institute and it was constructed by the Travancore royal family. The aim was to provide the best available treatment at most affordable rates and the government would not allow any attempt to deviate from it.
The minister said he would also meet Union health minister J P Naddha and request him to avoid paralysing the hospital functioning to promote research. "It should be a prominent research centre but not at the cost of healthcare delivery."
Chief minister Oommen Chandy had, on Wednesday, expressed anguish over the steep increase in charges at the institute and promised his intervention in the matter, following a series of TOI reports. It is under Chandy's directives that the health minister decided to meet the Union ministers at the earliest.
Meanwhile, opposition leader V S Achuthanandan has condemned the hike in treatment rates at the institute.