The Tamil Nadu government would allocate Rs.21 crore from the 11th Finance Commission to set up seven regional diagnostic centres. Each centre would be constructed at a cost of Rs. three crore and will be equipped with facilities such as CT scan, treadmill, ECG, EEG, auto analyser and clinical labs. The centres are to come up at Tiruvannamalai, Villipuram, Namakkal, Tiruppur, Puddukottai, Virudhnagar and Ramanathapuram.

The move by the government is in line with its policy of providing diagnostic facilities to the lower strata of the society, thus enabling them to avoid private diagnostic centres that charge exorbitant fees for the services provided. It is also aimed at curbing the mushrooming diagnostic centres in the state. Of late, there has been a mushrooming growth of diagnostic centres in the state although most of them lack facilities and minimum standards fixed by the government.

The centres to come up are in addition to the diagnostic centres attached to all district government hospitals set up by the Tamil Nadu Medical Service Corporation (TNMSC) in association with state government owned enterprise, the Electronic Corporation of Tamil Nadu (ELCOT). TNMSC, it is learnt, will be entrusted with the task of equipping these diagnostic centres with the facilities required through a competitive bidding channel. ELCOT too would be participating in the bidding process, it is learnt.

The scope of the centres, it is learnt, will also extend to having ultrasound and sonography in the later stages, which is aimed at curbing the increasing female foeticide. The identified districts, according to the latest census, have a female male imbalance ratio of 949 to 960 females per 1000 males. The centres would come first in those districts where female foeticide is more and female male ratio is proportionately very less.

Budget allocation would be appropriately done from the state budget to be announced in the beginning of next fiscal year.