Chennai: State health minister K G Arunraj on Friday opened an Indian medicine holistic wellness centre at the Directorate of Indian Medicine and Homoeopathy campus in Arumbakkam, offering 16 Ayush-based therapies, including hot herbal oil massages, fermentation therapy, mud therapy and cupping. The centre also offers fertility care.
The centre will run free and paid outpatient services, with paid services costing between ₹150 and ₹1,500.
“A 60-minute hot herbal oil massage will be among the highest-priced services,” said K Balasubramaniam, director of Indian medicine and homeopathy. “We can keep this cost low because more than 70% goes towards ingredients and disposables,” he added. The model is intended to make traditional wellness therapies accessible while also offering privacy and additional facilities to those opting for paid care, the minister said. The wellness centre is part of the state’s effort to expand public access to Indian systems of medicine, including siddha, ayurveda, unani, homoeopathy, yoga and naturopathy, Arunraj said.
The paid wing has private treatment rooms with attached bathrooms, while free services will be available at the outpatient facility. “We all have stress. We do not have to spend a lot or travel long distances for rejuvenation. Our hospitals offer this,” he added. The centre, attached to a govt medical college and major yoga-and-naturopathy hospital, opened in Feb offers diet and fasting therapy, hydrotherapy such as steam, immersion and underwater massage baths, mud and exercise therapy, yoga, electrotherapy, acupuncture, moxibustion, magnetotherapy and chromotherapy.