A team of consultants hired by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) began a two-day assessment of Coimbatore Medical College Hospital on Thursday.
The Agency has tied up with the Tamil Nadu Government to establish state-of-the-art medical centres at two Government Hospitals. It has deputed consultants to assess the Government Hospitals at various cities including Chennai, Coimbatore, Thanjavur and Madurai.
B. Asokan, Medical Superintendent of the hospital, met the two consultants, both of whom were architects, and briefed them about the infrastructure and space available at CMCH.
The Japanese consultants are scheduled to hold discussions with hospital Dean A. Edwin Joe on Friday. Hospital officials showed three locations at the CMCH including some old buildings that can be demolished to make way for the new building.
The purpose of the visit was to ascertain if the hospital had the necessary facilities to support a new medical centre that would handle non-communicable diseases and super-speciality departments besides 20 operating theatres and other infrastructure to support the advanced treatment in minimal access surgery. Such a centre required around 3,800 sq.mt., upon which a four-storey building would be constructed.
Being the tertiary referral centre for Western Tamil Nadu and border districts of Kerala, the CMCH witnesses around 6,000 outpatients every day and has a total of 1,247 beds for in-patients.
A centenary building with five blocks to accommodate around 1,000 beds and six modern operating theatres besides several super-specialty departments is under construction at a cost of Rs. 61 crore.
