Kerala CM P Vijayan will leave for the US on 15th January 2022 for his medical treatment scheduled at Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota. On 6th January 2022, the state government issued an order sanctioning the US visit of Vijayan, his wife Kamala and Vijayan’s personal assistant V M Suneesh from January 15 to 29. The order says that all the expenses in connection with the medical check-up will be borne by the state government.
It is noteworthy to mention that P Vijayan has taken the medical treatment in the US on state’s money earlier too. In September 2018, he had visited the same clinic. The nature of his ailment is not disclosed. Vijayan will leave only after he receives the formal approval from the Union Ministry Of Finance and the Union Ministry Of External Affairs.
Kerala model of availing US treatments on state’s money
CPM government in Kerala tirelessly praises its model of healthcare citing its work in coping with Nipah. It was also hyped in earlier stages of COVID-19 which was actually miserably failed. CPM on the other hand has always touted Cuba as the model to be followed for best practices in healthcare. The Kerala government had also earlier announced that it was exploring possibilities of getting its doctors trained in Cuba. However, it has been a regular practice of the ministers in CPM-ruled Kerala to avail best possible medical treatments from the US and leave the burden of expenses to the state.
In December 2021, the sports, Wakf and Haj pilgrimage minister of Kerala, V Abdurahiman was given clearance to travel to the US for 20 days for medical reasons. He will be undergoing treatment in the outpatient centre of The Johns Hopkins Hospital in New York.
In 2019, CPM state secretary Kodiyeri Balakrishnan underwent treatment in a hospital in United States’ Houston. His wife Vinodini has accompanied him. He is known to be a close associate of Kerala Chief Minister (CM) Pinarayi Vijayan. He began receiving treatment at a hospital in Houston in Oct 2019. Even after returning to Kerala, he continued his treatment in an upscale Thiruvananthapuram hospital.
He later returned to Houston for follow up treatment. In 2018, CM Vijayan underwent a 17-day-treatment in Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, in the United States for his undisclosed ailment. It is notable that the expenses of medico-tourism in all these cases were borne by the state.
