An MRI scan machine set up at the Government Medical College, Ernakulam, on Sunday will not only cater for the poor, it will also pave the way for reviving the lost postgraduate seats next year.
The Medical Council of India had not allowed admission to nine out of the 11 PG seats in the college for dearth of facilities including an MRI scanning machine.
Health Minister K.K. Shylaja inaugurated an expanded dialysis centre and the ₹10-crore worth MRI scanning machine, which is part of the ₹25-crore digital imaging facility envisaged for the medical college. The imaging centre is part of the comprehensive development programme drawn up by the medical college authorities for which the government had provided administrative sanction last year. Regularisation, integration and comprehensive development of the medical college had been a tardy process since the takingover of the medical college from the cooperative sector, said the Minister. A number of works had been scheduled to improve the facilities and standards of the institution, she added.
The imaging centre will have digital radiography and fluoroscopy machines, a high-end colour doppler with illustrography, MRI scan, bone densitometer and an ecocardiography machine.
Rates for the scan will be fixed on par with the existing rates at medical colleges in Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode.
Ten ICU beds with dialysis facility have been added to the existing six-bed facility at the medical college.
Now, 16 dialyses are being done in a day in three shifts. The expanded centre will be able to handle 40 dialyses a day.
Faculty members and non-teaching staff had also been appointed for the Nephrology Department, the Minister added.
The Kerala Investment Infrastructure Fund Board has sanctioned ₹368.74 crore for the comprehensive development of the medical college.
Rukiya Jamal, Chairperson, Kalamassery Municipality, presided. District Collector S. Suhas, Dr. V.K. Sreekala, Principal, Medical College; District Medical Officer N.K. Kuttappan and other dignitaries spoke.
