India spends about 4.8% of GDP on health of which only about 25% is public expenditure. Medical and surgical treatment for children with heart disease is provided by government hospitals where treatment is free. But, in spite of their best efforts, many of these government hospitals are severely restricted by the dual burden of relatively inadequate resources and excessive volume of patients. A conservative estimate is that there are about 1000 children waiting for heart surgery. Considering the fact that the hospital performs about 300 operations a year, it will take at least 3 years for the current waiting-list to be cleared, not to mention the fact that new cases are added onto the list everyday!
There is usually a long waiting-list of children needing heart surgery. This leads to a situation wherein the optimum timing of surgery has passed and many children become inoperable; they eventually face a tragic death in front of the very eyes of their helpless parents.
The Institute of Child Health, Chennai has a department of children’s heart surgery offering free operations for children with congenital and acquired heart diseases. It caters to the needs of such children not only in Tamil Nadu but also neighbouring states.
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