GEM Hospital inaugurated the scheme ‘Care for Life’ recently. It is a joint initiative of Rotary Club of Coimbatore Metropolis and GEM hospital, intended to spread awareness and provide free treatment for poor patients with gastrointestinal cancer.
The chief guest at the event was Dr R V Ramani – the founder and managing trustee at Sankara Eye Care Institutions, Coimbatore; the guest of honour was Dr B. Asokan, Dean of Coimbatore Medical College hospital, Coimbatore while the function was presided over by Dr C. Palanivelu, Chairman, GEM Hospital & Research centre, Coimbatore. The international partners for this initiative are Rotary Clubs of Lake Norman Huntersville and of Palm Springs, USA.
The initiative intends to pool funds from all the partners to enable free treatment for poor patients with early stage gastrointestinal cancers (Stage I and II), which can be completely cured at this stage. In India, the penetration of health insurance is less and majority of the patients pay out of their pocket for treatment or, if unable to arrange adequate finances, do not seek timely treatment.
It is hoped that through this initiative, poor patients with curable gastrointestinal cancer will not be deprived of timely treatment due to lack of finances.