Government Kilpauk Medical College Hospital (KMC) now has MRI and CT scan machines. This is the third tertiary care government hospital in the city to offer the facility.
The new equipment will bring down the patient load at the Rajiv Gandhi Government General Hospital (GH) and Government Stanley Hospital. Until now, doctors in KMC were forced to refer their patients to the other hospitals.
Every day, KMC had to refer four or five patients for MRI scans but given that the equipment has an optimum usage limit, often there were huge waiting lists at both GH and Stanley.
On Wednesday, health minister V. S. Vijay and senior health department officials, launched a slew of facilities at KMC. While the MRI has been installed at a cost of Rs. 5 crore, the CT scan cost Rs. 1.2 crore. The hospital also set up a post-anaesthetic intensive care unit and upgraded facilities at its pain clinic, said Dean P. Ramakrishnan.
“We have earned around Rs. 5.4 crore under the CM’s comprehensive health insurance scheme. Of this, the paediatrics department has contributed around Rs. 1.9 crore,” he added.
The ICU has been set up at a cost of Rs. 20 lakh, with cots, ventilators and monitors being installed in them. The hospital’s anaesthesia department has around seven senior anaesthetists, besides postgraduate students.
The hospital has also launched a central monitoring system for its neonatal intensive care unit (NICU). The upgraded NICU will help classify babies according to the level of sickness and provide specialised care. KMC is the first government hospital in the State to establish such a specialised unit for neonatal care.
