The government is trying to raise the Government Medical College Hospital here, the first in the State, to international standards, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has said.
He was speaking after inaugurating digital subtraction angiography, digital fluoroscopy, and digital mammogram machine at the Radio Diagnosis department of the hospital here on Tuesday.
Second phase
The Chief Minister said ₹194.33 crore had been sanctioned for the second phase of the hospital master plan.
A six-storey Medical Laboratory Technology (MLT) block, 11-storey paediatric block, and eight-storey surgical block were coming up in this phase.
The MLT block would have a lecture hall, lab, mini conference hall, and library.
Paediatric block
The SAT paediatric block will have medical gas room, out-patient consultation, lab, radio diagnosis, wards and so on, while the surgical block will have procedure rooms, 16 operation theatres, and wards.
The government had already sanctioned ₹5 crore to upgrade the stroke centre, he said.
The digital subtraction angiography machine, set up at a cost of ₹6 crore, would help obtain accurate depiction of blood vessels, thus helping treat serious illnesses such as blocks, cancer, stroke, blood pressure, and so on.
The digital fluoroscopy machine has been installed at a cost of ₹65 lakh.
It aids in studying the functioning of the internal organs using a form of X-ray in real-time.
These tests carried out by a radiologist need to be printed on a film only in cases it is necessary, thus saving on the film’s expense.
Breast cancer
The digital mammography machine, costing ₹1 crore, was donated by the Thiruvananthapuram district Rotary Club.
The machine aids in the early detection of breast cancer, and is hence very essential for a public health system.
The diagnostic test will cost anything above ₹3,500 in the private sector.
