Mumbai: The public health Departments Civil and subdistrict hospital conducted hip and knee joint replacement surgeries for free in the district and subdistrict of Maharashtra in rural hospitals by the government with the help of a team of orthopedic surgeons through the public health scheme ‘Mahatma Jyoti Rao Phule Jan Arogya Yojana’.
Additional Chief secretary of public health Dr. Pradeep Vyas said, ‘It is very appreciable that the surgeries performed at rural hospitals like Hinganghat, Gadchiroli, Bhandara, Civil Hospital Pune, under the scheme of ‘Mahatma Jyoti Rao Phule Jan Arogya Yojana’ free of cost for the needy patients.’
Additional Chief secretary of public health Dr. Pradeep Vyas said, ‘It is very appreciable that the surgeries performed at rural hospitals like Hinganghat, Gadchiroli, Bhandara, Civil Hospital Pune, under the scheme of ‘Mahatma Jyoti Rao Phule Jan Arogya Yojana’ free of cost for the needy patients.’
Hip and Knee joint problems are one of the most common problems affecting elderly patients in the state, and it can be because of osteoarthritis of the knees, avascular necrosis(AVN) of the hip, previous accidents, or sickle cell disease, which is common in the state.
The cost of surgeries is very high in private hospitals, and it is unaffordable for patients in rural areas. The condition affects the routine life of patients, leaving them in severe pain while performing day-to-day activities.
Recently civil surgeon from Wardha Dr. Sachin Tadas and a team of orthopedic surgeons Dr. Rahul Bhoyar, and Dr. Ashish Shinde at Hinganghat performed hip and knee surgery successfully and has planned to operate at least one patient per week as per the waiting list of beneficiaries under the various government schemes.
The civil hospital Pune regularly performs surgeries and since 2005 performed 112 hip and knee 07 surgeries since 2013 and similarly, Gadchiroli, Bhandara, Aurangabad, Nagpur districts have taken a lead on this initiative.
Director Dr. Sadhana Tayade, said ‘We have given priority to non-communicable diseases, and the package allotted for the state under the scheme gives the poor a privilege to use the quality services.’ she said.
Dr. Sanjay Jaiswal, Deputy Director of health services Nagpur division, said, ‘We are strengthening the system to perform regular joint and hip replacement surgeries in the district till12 hipand 04 knee replacement surgeries performed in division and hospitals at Gadchiroli, Bhandara, Nagpur, and Wardha in a rural part of Maharashtra for poor patients.
Dr.Sanjay Deshmukh Asst. director Pune, said, ‘We performed my mother’s knee replacement surgery successfully at civil hospital Pune through the orthopedic surgeon and performed 112 hip and 07 knee transplant successfully . He said
Dr.Vyas also said ‘The department intends to continue with joint replacement surgery at district in rural areas in the coming year so that the public health department can become a role model in public health for health services in the country for beneficiaries at rural areas, and maximum poor patients will get benefited.’