Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin on Saturday (August 2, 2025) inaugurated medical camps across all 38 districts in the State organised under the ‘Nalam Kaakkum Stalin’ scheme, aimed at taking healthcare to people’s doorsteps.
“This is the first stage programme I am participating in, outside Fort St. George, after being discharged from the hospital,” said Mr. Stalin, who had been under treatment at a private hospital in Chennai owing to certain health issues last week. “The initiative is aimed at safeguarding the welfare of the people of the State. The people’s welfare is my welfare,” he said at the inaugural event organised by the Health Department at St. Bede’s Anglo-Indian Higher Secondary School complex in Santhome.
Mr. Stalin said as part of the programme, 1,256 camps are being conducted, and priority is given to rural areas, areas where special medical facilities are fewer, and places with higher Scheduled Caste population. There are 200 medical staff, including doctors, in each camp, and they offer 17 specialised medical services, he said.
The Chief Minister also said the camps will prioritise people from economically weaker sections, those with diabetes and blood pressure, heart patients, lactating mothers, and pregnant women, among others. The test reports would be given to the beneficiaries in a file, and they would act as their medical history, which can be used anywhere, Mr. Stalin said.
“Our aim is to ensure that medical facilities, which are available in urban areas to those who can afford them, are also made accessible to poor people. In Tamil Nadu, the medical infrastructure is spread across villages,” Mr. Stalin said. “Camps like these are held to offer medical services closer to those who are not able to access hospitals. People should make use of it,” he said.
Mr. Stalin requested the doctors to treat people coming to them as “medical beneficiaries”, and urged them to take utmost care of them. “Tamil Nadu should be numero uno in all fields. On that basis, it should be the top State in offering medical services and protecting the health of people,” he said.