A sewage treatment plant will be set up at the Ernakulam General Hospital soon. The government has sanctioned Rs.1 crore for setting up the plant, which will have the capacity to treat 0.5 million litres of waste water a day. Orders for civil works are awaited.
At present, the sewage from the General Hospital is discharged into the only sewerage system in the city. The new plant would discharge treated waste into the drainage, thus ensuring liquid-waste management at the source.
A new dietary kitchen will also start functioning at the hospital soon. A modern kitchen is under construction for the same.
The idea of providing food to the patients was a new concept in government hospitals. The General Hospital would offer the facility from next month, thus becoming one of the first institutions to do so in the country, said hospital Superintendent Junaid Rahman. The civil work for the new kitchen, estimated to cost Rs.30 lakh, will be completed soon. P. Rajiv, MP, has provided Rs.15 lakh from his Local Area Development Fund and the Kochi Refinery Limited has provided Rs.10 lakh for the purpose.
Four dieticians would prepare the menu for the patients and the food would be provided at their bedside three times a day free of cost.
As per estimates, the 783-bed hospital will have to pool in Rs.25,000 a day for providing food to the in-patients. “We have managed to get a few sponsors, but more would be required,” said Dr. Rahman.
Other programmes under which food is provided to bystanders will continue. Once the dietary kitchen starts functioning, outside food will not be allowed for in-patients.
Dialysis
Another facility that is coming up at the General Hospital is free dialysis for renal failure patients, which will be implemented in association with Navajeevanam, a unit of the Satya Sai Orphanage Trust. The organisation has been providing free dialysis service at nine centres in six districts in the State for the last five years.
So far, 75,000 dialyses have been done at these centres, which cost Rs.7 crore, said K.N. Anand Kumar, executive director of the Trust, in a statement.
The government would provide space, electricity, medicines, and doctors for the service. The Trust would provide dialysis machine and technicians. The unit would function round-the-clock.
Navajeevanam was undertaking renovation works, estimated to cost Rs.17 lakh, at the space provided by the hospital, the statement said.
