State-run Sarojini Devi Eye Hospital has installed a mechanised laundry system worth Rs. 16.4 lakh to ensure supply of clean linen throughout the year for its surgeons. The hospital is also set to receive medical equipment worth Rs. 6 crore so as to enable high-end services.
The shortage of clean linen to take up surgeries and other infrastructure frailties at the hospital were highlighted in these columns recently.
Hospital Superintendent P.V. Nanda Kumar said infrastructure weaknesses were being addressed in a big way.
“With the addition of the new equipment and mechanised laundry, things will start looking up at the hospital,” he said.
Relief for patients
Till recently, hospital doctors were forced to send patients to outside facilities for diagnostic and surgical services. The hospital would also be able to offer medical services to diabetic patients.
“Diabetic retinopathy is a common condition. Now, we will not have to send such patients outside. We are acquiring Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT), which is required to take high-resolution images of retina to detect such ailments,” Dr. Nanda Kumar said.
Already, the hospital has received medial equipment worth Rs. 1 crore including a viterctomy machine for surgeries, slit lamps for eye inspection, microscopes, special lenses and green laser for surgeries.
“These are high-end equipment, needed for complicated surgeries. We used to refer patients to private hospitals to avail such services,” the Superintendent pointed out.
Additional equipment like three phaco-machines for cataract surgeries, special scanning machines, high-end powerful microscopes including an OCT are being procured. The new equipment is likely to be made operational in another month, he said.
The hospital surgeons are capable of performing high-end surgeries to treat near and far sightedness.
“For such surgeries, we are waiting for a Lasik machine,” Dr. Kumar said, hopeful of obtaining it at the earliest.
