The Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry is planning to provide free diagnosis and treatment of diabetes, heart diseases and Hypertension in the entire country. The Health and Family Welfare Minister Gulam Nabi Azad today informed about this scheme while inaugurating the 10th Annual Conference of Vascular Society of India at Jaipur. He said that these facilities are being provided in 100 remote districts of 21 states under a pilot project and will be available in the entire country next year.

Mr Azad said, due to lack of adequate number of doctors at the district level, private hospitals are also being contacted for this work. The Health Minister said that UPA Government is committed to strengthen health services in rural areas. He said that norms for setting up private medical colleges have been relaxed to provide more seats in medical courses. He said that 85 per cent increase could be seen in the number of PG Doctors in the next 3 years with these relaxations.