The Coimbatore Medical College Hospital has urged the Public Health Department to sanction funds for constructing a catheterization laboratory or cath lab. The infrastructure for accommodating this laboratory has been created in the centenary building, which is under construction and was expected to be completed in a few months.
This laboratory is equipped with diagnostic imaging equipment used to diagnose the heart and the chambers of the heart and treat any stenosis or abnormality found. The CMCH is a tertiary referral centre for several Western districts and even border districts of Kerala such as Palakkad.
The proposal was put forth during a Regional Government Hospital Deans’ meeting convened at Chennai last week by the Directorate of Medical Education to discuss the Budget allotments, utilisation of funds and maintenance of equipment besides students’ stipends.
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Hospital sources told The Hindu here on Monday that the CMCH Dean A. Edwin Joe also sought immediate appointment of nearly 250 additional staff nurses to comply with Nursing and Medical Councils of India norms. The CMCH had around 200-odd nurses now with final year students from the School of Nursing being deployed to make up for shortfall. The Hospital was recently under the scanner for adverse remarks in an MCI inspection report. The norms call for a staff nurse to patient ratio of 8:1 in general wards and 1:1 in Intensive Care Units.
Further, sources said that the issue of equipment for the Cardio-Thoracic Surgery Department also came up. While a doctor had been posted, the department was yet to get modern equipment or the support staff such as heart lung machine operator and perfusion technologist.
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A senior hospital official said that the cath lab will have a high utility rate of at least five cases every day. It can be used to perform, free of cost, procedures such as implanting stents in the heart that would cost between Rs. 1.5 lakh to Rs. 3 lakh in private hospitals.
The procedures would be performed under Chief Minister’s Health Insurance Scheme, which would yield a revenue of Rs. 1 lakh per patient to the hospital. The Dean also urged for filling up vacancies in the clerical posts, which was around 20 per cent. Vacancies at doctors’ level were minimal.