The setting up of many public healthcare institutions on one particular stretch of the busy KRS Road here has turned the area into a potential hub for all major healthcare services and has scope for developing more facilities for patients’ ease.
Health Minister B. Sriramulu, who was in Mysuru recently, was perhaps hinting at these hospitals – some have become functional and a few are in the process of becoming operational – when he announced to make Mysuru a “healthcare hub.”
Eight major hospitals are located on the stretch between Vontikoppal Temple junction and Outer Ring Road (ORR) junction on KRS Road in a distance of less than five km.
They include the 350-bed Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research, the 100-bed renovated ESI Hospital, the Government Nature Cure and Yoga Medical College, the Epidemic Diseases (ED) Hospital and the PKTB Sanatorium (both are old institutions), the 100-bed Trauma Care Centre, the 300-bed District Hospital (which was opened on Thursday) and the under-construction 250-bed Super Speciality Hospital.
“It’s not common to find so many public healthcare facilities located within a short distance on one particular stretch of road. If more facilities are brought in, making it a healthcare hub, it will largely benefit patients since services for primary care, secondary care, tertiary care, super speciality care and cardiac care are available within easily reachable distance,” said District Health Officer Venkatesh.
Sources in the health sector said facilities such as Sri Jayadeva Institute, which provides advanced cardiac care, have the potential to make the area a “medical tourism hub”.
Land availability
The PKTB Sanatorium has plenty of land under the control of the Medical Education Department and, therefore, some of the healthcare projects are located there since land is not ava
ilable within the city limits. More land is available for accommodating any new health project.
With the launch of new hospitals, the stretch has turned busy and the road connecting these facilities had been developed with ample lighting.
The super speciality hospital was earlier proposed on the premises of 1,000-bed K.R. Hospital but was later shifted to the Sanatorium campus after the district hospital was also identified nearby.
The K.R. Hospital, located in the city centre, offers basic public healthcare with over a dozen speciality services such as nephrology, neurology, urology and neurosurgery.
Healthcare services for factory workers and others have improved with the launch of the renovated 100-bed Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) Hospital.
The modernised ESI Hospital provides in-patient and outpatient treatment facilities in many specialities. Insured persons hailing from six districts — Mysuru, Mandya, Chamarajanagar, Hassan, Kodagu, and Chikkamagaluru — are using the services. Mysuru district alone has about 1.7 lakh insured persons. Earlier, the hospital existed on 3.48 acres of land.
New building
The old building was demolished and a new, improved one had been built in its place. ESI Hospital is close to the Metagalli and Hebbal industrial areas where many factories and industrial units are located.
On an average, 3,000 people use outpatient care at K.R. Hospital daily. Patients from neighbouring districts also come over, increasing the load on the existing infrastructure.
Both hospitals are under pressure with rising patient load whereas the infrastructure remains undersized to meet the demand.
At Cheluvamba Hospital, the number of referral cases of high-risk pregnancies and complicated births from public healthcare institutions in neighbouring districts has been rising consistently. About 550 critically ill infants are admitted to the NICU, where newborns with noticeable health problems are treated, every month.
