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Tamil Nadu CM launches ‘Amma mini clinics’ for poor
Each clinic will have a doctor, nurse and a medical assistant to offer consultation and basic treatment for patients with headache, fever and other ailments barring Covid-19.
On the lines of Mohalla clinics in Delhi, Tamil Nadu chief minister Edapaddi Palaniswami on Monday launched ‘Amma’ mini clinics for Tamil Nadu to provide free medical services to the poor, just four months before the 2021 assembly polls in the state.
Each clinic will have a doctor, nurse and a medical assistant to offer consultation and basic treatment for patients with headache, fever and other ailments barring Covid-19.
In the first phase, 630 mini clinics have been opened in the state which will go up to 2,000. In Chennai, 20 mini clinics will begin functioning. 43 such clinics have been planned for the city in the initial phase to raise it to 200.
“We want to provide disease-free life to our people,” said Palaniswami while launching the project in Chennai. Palaniswami said that ‘Amma mini clinics’ have been rolled out in areas where the existing primary health care centre isn’t accessible.
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‘Amma’ meaning ‘mother’ in Tamil is how the AIADMK cadre address their late leader J Jayalalithaa and several social welfare schemes in the state are named with this prefix such as ‘Amma Canteens’ and ‘Amma Drinking Water’. Tamil Nadu goes to polls in early 2021 where the ruling government garnered public support through such schemes that are either free or heavily subsidised.
The mini clinics will function in the mornings from 8 to noon and in the evenings from 4 to 8 and are located in lower-income neighbourhoods so people can have easy access. The idea for this stemmed from the fever clinics that were put up to screen residents for Covid-19 during the lockdown. The fever camps started in Chennai and it was later scaled up across Tamil Nadu where lakhs of people could walk from their homes to the nearest camps where they were checked for influenza-like illness and virus symptoms.
