Union Health Ministry’s ambitious project to upgrade the Government Mohan Kumaramangalam Medical College Hospital, Salem, into a super speciality healthcare centre on the lines of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) is ready for commissioning.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi will dedicate the superspeciality hospital to people on August 20.

The State-supported Rs. 139-crore five-storeyed hospital, which has come up on a sprawling site situated in the heart of the city, is expected to provide a fresh lease of life to the chronically ill Government hospital which has not witnessed any development for a long time.

Though attached to a medical college, which also offers a few post-graduate courses, the hospital, a major referral centre for patients from Salem, Erode, Namakkal, Dharmapuri, Krishnagiri and Villupuram districts, lacks adequate infrastructure and sophisticated equipment.

But since the hospital has attained the superspeciality status, the first in Tamil Nadu (a similar project is on in Madurai Rajaji Hospital too), it is expected to ensure a well-advanced care in all specialised areas, including a full-fledged trauma and emergency care centre with 300 beds.

The bed strength is expected to go up to a staggering 1,000 and the projected number of outpatients is estimated to be around 4,500 a day.

The State Health Ministry is in the process of “identifying and relocating” some of the best specialists in various fields of medicine and surgery to man the hospital departments.

The first batch of sophisticated medical equipment has also arrived and the process of erecting them is on.

The government has also toned up the infrastructure for the nursing college to mitigate shortage of paramedical staff.

Works for a separate water pipeline and storm water drainage are being undertaken while the approach road to the hospital is being widened.

Agriculture Minister Veerapandi S. Arumugam, who is monitoring the on-going works of the prestigious project, said that everything would be in place when the Chief Minister would inaugurate it.

Source: THE HINDU