When will KCG take up cardiac care?

K’taka Minister Ashwath promised a 60-bed facility at hospital by April, but that is nowhere near completion

YuvaraniKempu Cheluvajammanni General Hospital, popularly known as the K C General Hospital in Malleswaram is one of the oldest government hospitals in the city. The hospital has seen several stages of upgradation ever since its establishment in 1910.This time, however, it will have to wait longer for a new facility to start operations.

A cardiac care facility was planned on the premises of the hospital. The 60-bedded facility will be a satellite centre of the Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences.

The State Department of Health and Family Welfare is getting the structure built and will reportedly transfer it to Jayadeva which will take over the facility in an EOM (EquipOperate-Manage) model.

In January, Karnataka Minister for Higher Education and Malleswaram MLA C N Ashwath Narayan was reported saying that the facility would begin operations from April this year. However, construction was still in an initial stage in April when the minister undertook an inspection of the progress. He then instructed the contractor to complete the construction in a month. The contractor reportedly began working on the building over seven months ago. As of Friday, the construction work is nowhere near completion and still needs over a month to finish. According to an official from the Chief Engineer’s Office, Department of Health and Family Welfare, the civil and electrical work would be completed before June 30.

“The Department is responsible only for the structural part of the project. We will hand over the structure by the end of next month after which Jayadeva will equip the facility,” he said. The structure, with a built-up area of about 20,000 square feet, is being constructed atop the hospital’s outpatient block at a cost of Rs 8.5 cr. Jayadeva will spend an additional Rs 5.5 cr on equipping the satellite centre which is said to include a male and female general ward, an ICU, cardiac cath labs and echo-treadmill facilities.

The equipment needs to be procured through a separate tender, the process for which is reportedly yet to begin