Agartala [Tripura] January 25 (HornbillTV): Tripura Chief Minister Biplab Kumar Deb on Tuesday said that the day is not far ahead when people of Tripura would not have to bear costly medical expenses and travel outside the state for advanced treatment.

"We have good doctors here, we have our government hospitals giving best possible treatment and most importantly we have PM Modi's support of Ayushman Bharat that is easing the trouble of many poor families in Tripura," said Deb during a precise media briefing at his official chamber.

He was briefing the media persons on the sidelines of a felicitation programme of the GBP hospital medical team that recently operated an open heart surgery at the state's biggest referral hospital.

Deb further said, "The first open-heart surgery performed in Tripura was done completely free of cost as the patient was a beneficiary of Ayushman Bharat health scheme that assures INR 5 lakh insurance cover every year. This is a big achievement for the state. I congratulate the medical team for their commendable job."

According to Deb, this is a new dawn in Tripura's health sector and complicated operations are being done in regular intervals at the newly introduced Cardiology department at the hospital.

"This is not like that one surgery has been done and after that procedures are stopped. Persistent efforts are being put and doctors have so far completed 83 procedures pertaining to different complexities of the heart. Apart from the Open Heart Surgeries, three other surgeries have been done," said Deb.

According to an official statement, a total of 131 persons received treatment at the Cath Lab where facilities like Angiography, Angioplasty, and permanent and temporary pacemaker implantations are newly introduced.