The Government Mohan Kumaramangalam Medical College Hospital’s cardiology department, starting this October, has implanted pacemakers on seven patients free of cost under the Chief Minister’s Health Insurance Scheme.
Referal centre
P.Kannan, Head of Cardiology Department, said, “the department is the referral cardiac interventional centre for seven districts in the region - Salem, Karur, Namakkal, Kallakurichi, Dharmapuri, Erode and Krishnagiri. The pacemaker instrument is imported from the U.S. and the surgery is done here free of cost under the insurance scheme. The procedure would cost anywhere between ₹1.5 lakh to ₹ 2 lakh in private hospitals.” “Earlier patients had to travel to Coimbatore or depend on private hospitals here to get the implant done. Public were also skeptical whether a government hospital could conduct such implants successfully. “From October this year, we have done seven implants and patients are doing well,” he said.
The cardiology department in Salem GH attends up to 15,000 outpatients and 500 in-patients a month. The department conducts over 120 angiograms a month and Dr. Kannan said that the numbers have doubled year on year.
R. Balajinathan, Dean of the Hospital, said various efforts were taken to improve the facilities in the department. “We have done two emergency percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty in last 10 days and all such surgeries are done free of cost. Efforts are taken to create more awareness among people about availability of such facilities here”, Dr. Balajinathan said.
