KOCHI: The Kerala high court has asked the Union government to take a favorable decision on the state government’s request for making three government medical colleges providing treatment for children with rare diseases Centers of Excellence so that such children can be treated within the state.
A Centre of Excellence (CoE) gets central funding and has advanced facilities for diagnosis and treatment.
A division bench comprising chief justice S Mani Kumar and justice Shaji P Chaly asked the secretary of Health and Family Welfare Department of the Union government to take a favorable decision after noting that the nearest CoE for the children in Kerala is at Bengaluru.
The state government had, in a letter dated December 2nd last year, sought urgent necessary action to include the government medical colleges at Thiruvananthapuram, Kottayam, and Kozhikode in the list of CoEs for treatment of rare diseases under National Rare Disease Policy. The medical colleges are providing treatment at present but lacks funding and facilities.
In the order (W.A. No. 2151/2017 and WP-C No. 28250/2017), the court said, “We are of the view that the above said hospitals should have advanced technology to provide treatment to the children suffering from rare diseases. Attention of this Court was also invited to the suggestion for improvising the hospitals by inclusion of various equipment’s which may be required for the treatment of rare diseases.
“Further, funding has been permitted only in respect of certain Centers of Excellence notified. If the Principal Secretary to Government, Health and Family Welfare Department, Government of India, New Delhi, respondent No. 4 in the writ appeal, takes a favorable decision, on the request made by the State Government in respect of the hospitals stated supra, children and others suffering from rare diseases could be treated within the State of Kerala and there could be sufficient contribution from the Government of India as well.”
The court also said the state government has failed to provide sufficient publicity to the crowd-funding project aimed at finding funds for treating children with rare diseases and asked the government to give advertisements regarding the same. The court also asked companies to allocate funds from their corporate social responsibility (CSR) towards the fund-raising project.
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