Patna: Five-year-old Mariyam, a resident of Phulwarisharif, was diagnosed with neural tube defect last year but her father, Mohammad Jamil, couldn't get her surgery because of the family's poor financial condition.

There is now hope for Mariyam and others like her. The Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS) will soon start conducting certain paediatric surgeries for free. Surgeries for children with birth defects, including those suffering from neural tube defect, Down syndrome, cleft lip and palate, talipes (club foot), development dysplasia of the hip and retinopathy of prematurity, would be done for free at IGIMS.

Neural tube defect is a condition in which there is spinal abnormality in a child within first four weeks of pregnancy in which the child's spine fails to close properly.

The health department is going to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the IGIMS according to which the institute has to perform paediatric surgeries on children between the age group of 0-18 for free on not only children from the BPL families but children from any economical background can be beneficiary of the scheme.

The health department would ink the deal with the IGIMS under the Centre's Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karkyakram (RBSK). The paediatric surgery cost would be borne by the Centre and the state in 60:40 ratio. The health department has also sent proposals to other government medical college and hospitals and All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Patna, as there are plans to start selected free paediatric surgeries for 0-18 age group patients there too.

"A meeting has been called on August 27 in which officials of AIIMS-Patna and other government medical colleges would be present. The deal would be discussed in the meeting. In case, we feel the need to seal a deal with the hospitals outside the state to conduct rare paediatric surgeries, we would also do that," said additional director-cum-state programme officer at the State Health Society, R.N. Dwivedi.

He said be it hospitalisation or investigation charges, families of the beneficiary children won't have to pay for the procedures, as everything would be covered under the joint package of the Centre and the state.

"As many as 776 mobile health teams at the block level in the state would search for the beneficiaries of the free paediatric surgery. The mobile health teams have been provided with doctors, technicians and necessary equipment to conduct the tests. After screening, if any child is found apt for being beneficiary of the free paediatric surgery, the team will refer the child to the IGIMS and other government medical college and hospital, where the child's free surgery would be done," he added.

Apart from free surgery, free screening of diseases of children between 0 and 18 years of age for common diseases and development delays such as attentive deficit hyperactivity disorder, autism, learning disorder among others would also be conducted at aanganwadi and school level under the same programme.