Health Minister V S Sivakumar has said that the state will have a health policy in six months’ time and that everyone in the state will get health cards.

He was speaking at the inauguration of the state-level distribution of financial assistance of the Society for Medical Assistance to the Poor, aimed at giving the poor treatment facilities for fatal diseases.

As a pilot project of the initiative to make generic medicines free, generic medicines will be supplied free of cost at the Thiruvananthapuram Medical College; General Hospital, Ernakulam and Vithura PHC by September 15. By November 1, it will be given free of cost across the state, he said.

The Minister also said that 119 cancer drugs now distributed through the RCC here, would be made available in all the five medical colleges and the General Hospital here from September.

At the function treatment assistance was given to 1,028 beneficiaries for as much as Rs 1,81,07,500. K Muraleedharan MLA, presided over the meeting and district panchayat president Remani P Nair gave the keynote address.The Minister said that since several laboratories were not working as per norms, raids on laboratories would continue. Director of Health Services Dr P K Jameela, Director of Medical Education Dr B Geetha, ADHS Dr Kumari G Prema, Dr N Sreedhar, Councillor Kumari Padmanabhan, DMO Dr T Peethambaran and NRHM District Planning officer Dr B Unnikrishnan spoke on the occasion.