Printed from Government to ink MoU with private hospitals for Hridayam initiative TNN | Aug 22, 2017, 06.36 AM IST KOCHI: With the government set to launch the congenital heart disease management programme Hridayam (for little hearts), the health department is in the process of inking MoU with three more private hospitals to empanel them for treating congenital heart problems. At the moment there are three government empanelled hospitals namely Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, Government Medical College, Kottayam and the medical college in Kozhikode. In the private sector, only Amrita Institute of Medical Sciences (AIMS) was empanelled. Now, the government's assessment committee has inspected three private hospitals namely Aster Medcity, Kochi; Lisie Hospital, Kochi and Believers Church Medical College Hospital, Thiruvalla. The panel recommended that since these hospitals meet the technical requirement, government can sign MoUs with them so that patients will get free treatment at these institutions. "Three more private hospitals are being empanelled to reduce waiting time," said state mission director of National Health Mission (NHM) Keshvendra Kumar. Hridayam is a unique initiative by the state government to support children with congenital heart disease (CHD), which happens to be the 'largest treatable cause of death' among infants. Hridayam is a web-based solution that will care for children with CHD. The initiative will monitor the programme envisaged for the management of children with CHD, identify bottlenecks for implementing established protocols, and understand case status and response time. As per the plan, a beneficiary will have to register at Hridayam website and after the registration process is complete, the surgery dates fixed by the empanelled institutions would be provided to the child's parents. "Family members can choose the date and empanelled hospital they want to go ahead with the operation. Once implemented, this would be a first-of-its-kind system in the country," said an official closely associated with the programme. After the website was opened on Monday, nearly five cases were registered. .