Rs 500 Nutritional Allowance Scheme for TB Patients in Tamil Nadu

The state government of Tamil Nadu has announced to launch a new scheme termed as Rs. 500 Nutritional Allowance Scheme for Patients suffering from Tuberculosis (TB) condition. The new initiative has been announced by the government as Strategic Plan to be run Nation wide for eliminating TB. The new initiative aims at controlling and eliminating TB by the year 2030. As a part for the drive, the government has announced to offer TB patients with Rs 500 Incentive on monthly basis for ongoing TB treatment.

Implementation details

As per the statements collected the state government has announced to get started with the new initiative of providing Rs 500 incentives to the patients from 2018 April. The incentive will be offered to each patients suffering from TB condition, irrespective of social status and income level.
The incentive has been announced by the government for the TB patients with an aim to offer nutritional support as during this condition patients are severely affected by Appetite problems.
For better implementation of the scheme state wide the government has stated that the incentive amount will be directly credited in patients bank accounts for benefit.

Beneficiaries

As per the stats collected by the state government it is expected that over 1.3 lakh patients who are suffering from TB condition will be offered with benefit under this scheme.
Each beneficiary under the scheme will be able to take full benefit by the state government during six or more month period at the time of treatment which will be paid as three different installments.

Key Features and details of Nutritional Allowance Scheme

One of the most important features of running the above mentioned scheme is that patients will be offered with Rs 500 as incentive for under going treatment for nutritional support. This means that each patient will be able to fight the condition effectively as he or she may not have to suffer on account of mal-nourishment.
As per the state government, the scheme will offer equal benefit to each beneficiary irrespective of his income or age at the time of treatment. No such criteria have been set by the government for the beneficiary as bench mark.
DBT facilities will be offered to the patients from the government to ensure that the benefit is offered directly to the beneficiary under the scheme. To ensure that beneficiaries complete the treatment course the government has announced to offer the incentive in three installments till treatment time.
The government has also stated that only registered patients who are undergoing treatment procedure will be able to claim for incentive from the government.
The moment the patient is notified of suffering from TB condition will be able to make the claim for 1^st The next installment will only be provided to the patient the moment he or she has completed two months of treatment process. The final installment will only be paid to the patient the moment he or she has completed the entire treatment course.
If any patients have to under go extended period for treatment over six months then additional incentives will be offered by the government. As per the statements made the government will implement the Pilot project in various government owned hospitals in initial stage (Thoracic medicine hospital, Tambaram). Later on the initiative will be extended state wide.

Budget allocation

For better implementation of the scheme state wide the government has announced to allocate a set budget of Rs 600 crore for implementation stage. The amount will be used by the government for offering patients with best dietary plan.

Facts about National Allowance Scheme TB patients

As per the statistics collected by the health department and government over 1.3 lakh registered cases of TB patients are reported on yearly basis in Tamil Nadu. The government has also confirmed that nearly 60000 are treated within the Private hospitals while 70000 cases are treated within the government hospital facilities.
Apart from this, private sector also reports over 15000 cases to government hospitals every year. At present the government is operating at least 461 sets for monitoring TB under medical officer supervision.
The state government of Tamil Nadu also offers with Rs 1000 as incentive to HIV or TB infected Farmer in the state as pension to registered card holders.
With the implementation of the scheme the government aims at reducing the number of deaths on account of TB condition. As per government statements India also holds it’s forth place globally for TB with over 28 lakh cases registered every year. As per stats over 480000 patients loose their life on account of TB while only 17 lakh cases manage to get registered for treatments.

Details of RNTCP Program

RNTCP is an initiative that is operated by TN state government for regulating TB. The Revised National Tuberculosis Control Program is an initiative under which the government offers with free of cost treatments for patients suffering from TB conditions. The program is effectively implemented for government sectors.
The initiative has been operational state wide since 2002. Now with implementation of NAS the state government aims at tracking the availability of nutritional diet for TB patients. So under the scheme the government will ensure that the nutritional program is perfectly implemented state wide.
The government also aims that this new program will prove helpful in regulating reducing the mortality rate on account of TB. So under the Nutritional diet program the government aims at offering patients with best diet plan to help fight TB condition.

Rs 500 Nutritional Allowance Scheme for TB Patients in Tamil Nadu