Expressing concern over the rise in heart attacks among people after the COVID-19 pandemic, T.N. Health Minister Ma. Subramanian on Tuesday said that the State government, through a scheme, ‘Idhayam Kappom’, has stocked the life-saving emergency loading dose at 10,999 rural health facilities: 8,173 health sub centres (HSCs) and 2,286 primary health centres (PHCs), to treat persons experiencing symptoms of heart attacks, after which they would be taken in an ambulance to a nearby higher health facility.
The Minister said that the scheme, which was announced in the State Budget, was rolled out on June 27. “If a person experiencing symptoms of a heart attack approaches an HSC or PHC, he/she would be given the loading dose as the initial treatment and would then be moved to a higher medical centre,” he said.
Mr. Subramanian raised the need for early treatment to save lives. He said a number of persons have benefitted from the cardiac drugs, and gave the instance of three patients who were initially treated with these drugs at the Alathur PHC in Thanjavur district over the last month. He spoke to the patients: two women aged 50 and 42 years, and a man aged 36 years, over the phone, during his inspection.
