Mysuru is also a Medical City – 4: Government Medical Facilities

[Continued from Feb. 17]

By R. Chandra Prakash

Government Medical facilities in Mysuru have seen substantial improvements in the last decade. Right now there is a proposal for an expenditure of Rs. 86 crore to renovate Government-run Hospitals in Mysuru. New facilities like Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research, a District Hospital and an Ayurveda  Hospital have come up on KRS Road. There is hectic lobbying to bring an extension of Kidwai Memorial Cancer Hospital to Mysuru. There are also the ESI Hospital and  a Railway Hospital to cater to the requirements of particular groups of citizens. City’s All India Institute of Speech and Hearing (AIISH) is rendering yeomen service to the young and old suffering from hearing impairment and its related problems. A brief overview of some of them is published here:

Urban Primary Health Centres

Though not much known, there are 32 Urban Primary Health Centres (UPHCs) in Mysuru and since 2014 each one of them has been provided with a qualified doctor, a nurse and supporting staff. They provide the patients with necessary investigations and medicines. Their main role as medical extension service providers continues in various fields of medical challenges. They have played very crucial role during the past two years of Covid pandemic. There is hope that with greater infrastructure and monetary grants in the near future they will play a bigger supplementary role to the main the Government Hospitals.

New District Hospital

Very recently the Government has established a separate District Hospital at a cost of Rs.160 crore on KRS Road. It is located in an area of 6 acres and  has taken over the already existing Epidemic Diseases (ED) Hospital on this land.  It has 300 beds capacity and a staff of 160, of which 32 are doctors, 60 nurses and others are Technicians, Lab Attendants and Group-D employees. The Hospital is equipped with X-Ray, Ultrasound and a good Laboratory. It will significantly reduce patient load on other Government Hospitals in city, particularly on K.R. Hospital.

In March 2020, due to Covid crisis this Hospital was put to use even before the building was handed over to the concerned authorities. Right now it has been attending exclusively to Covid patients of the district and till date it has attended to about 12,000 seriously ill Covid patients and about 38,000  Covid out-patients.  It has carried out 60,000 screening activities with RT-PCR swab testing and has vaccinated about 78,000 persons. This Hospital is ready to cater to non-covid services such as medical and surgical, including OPD, IPD, Lab tests, MICU, NICU, PICU, casualty and emergency services too.

Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research

Originally started in the year 2010 in K.R. Hospital complex, Jayadeva Institute now has its own building on KRS Road. It is a Government-run Autonomous Institute, purely a Non-Profit Organisation with state-of-the-art cardiac care, providing quality cardiac care at an affordable cost to all sections of society and free of cost to deserving poor. Its 75% of patients are well below the poverty line. It has 350 beds exclusively for cardiac care. Implementing effectively the concept “Treatment First – Payment Next”  is its unique feature.

On an average 600 patients visit this Hospital everyday and annually 13,000 to 14,000 in-patients are treated. Heart surgeries started in 2019 and about 50 surgeries and 30 vascular surgeries are done every month. Till date, 63,300 Cath-labs procedures, including Coronary Angiograms, Angioplasties, Valvuloplasties, Pacemaker, Device Closures and other Procedures have been done in this Hospital. It has 20 Cardiologists, 8 Cardiothoracic Surgeons, 1 Vascular Surgeon, 6 Anaesthesiologists, one  Resident Medical Officer, 3 Senior Residents  and 11 General Duty Medical Officers with 700  supporting ancillary staff.

Cheluvamba Hospital

This Hospital for maternity care is a teaching hospital attached to Mysore Medical College and Research Institute. It has a Children’s Block where it provides services to paediatric patients and has specialised units providing neonatal care, paediatric surgery, diarrhoeal treatment and immunisations.  It has 410 beds including 130 paediatric beds and 280 beds in obstetrics and gynaecology and is also a designated neonatal ward and a diarrhoeal diseases unit. About 40-45 babies are delivered here each day. There are Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICUs) accommodating 30 infants at a time. The out-patient department sees 500-600 patients every day.

K. R.  Hospital

It is a tertiary referral and teaching hospital attached to Mysore Medical College and Research Institute. It has a 1,050 bed capacity and a staff of 560, of which 350 are doctors and 210 nurses and others. It is equipped with facilities like Laboratory, Physiotherapy, Blood Bank, Echo-Cardiogram facilities, X-Ray, CT Scanning, MRI, Dialysis, EEG, ABG, Ultrasound scanning, Mammography, Endoscopy and Colonoscopy.

Apart from the Casualty and Emergency Department, K.R. Hospital today has departments providing services in the fields  of Medicine, Endocrinology, Surgery, Orthopaedic, ENT, Skin & STD, Ophthalmology, Psychiatry, Plastic Surgery, Neurology, Neurosurgery, Dental, Urology, Nephrology, Onco-Surgery, Radio-Therapy, Cardiology, Gastroenterology and Surgical Oncology. Hospital distributes free drugs, in-patient food facilities, Disability Cards under UDID and ART Centre.

During the month of December 2021, it had 3,355 in-patients and  served 36,819 out-patients, of which 9,344 belonged to Medicine and Endocrinology, 4,737 to Casualty/Emergency, 4,642 to Orthopaedics, 4,489 to Skin and STD, and 3,152 to Surgery and rest to other Departments.

P.K.T.B. Sanatorium

Princess Krishnajammanni Tuberculosis and Chest Diseases Hospital is spread across 70 acres of land with well-ventilated and spacious wards. It has two departments — Respiratory Medicine and Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery. This Hospital also caters to  diagnosis and treatment of all other respiratory illness including COVID-19. In the year 2021, over 11,000 patients utilised OPD services, over 2,700 patients were admitted and treated and around 47 major surgeries and 264 minor surgeries were conducted. Consultation is also provided to patients admitted with respiratory illness at K.R. Hospital and Cheluvamba Hospital.  This Hospital is a nodal DRTB centre and caters to Mysuru and 5 neighbouring districts. All latest drugs for tuberculosis including Bedaquiline (costing around Rs. 1.8 lakh) and Delamanid are given free of cost to the patients. In addition, any adverse events of these potent drugs are also treated.  Till date more than 1,100 drug-resistant TB patients have been treated.

Ayurveda Hospital

This is a 170-bed Hospital, treating around 400 patients daily on OPD basis, providing lab investigations like Haematology, Liver Function test, Lipid Profile, Renal function test, X-Ray, Ultra Sonography and Day Care Panchakarma treatments. Treatments for diseases like Paralysis, Low back-ache, Joint disorders, Asthma, Psoriasis, Eczema, Jaundice, Gastritis, Migraine headache, Obesity and Gynaecological diseases  are provided. Special Ayurveda treatments like Panchakarma – Vamana, Virechana, two types of Basti, Nasya, Abhyanga, Katibasti, Janubasti, Udvartana, Shirodhara, Ksharasutra for Anorectal diseases, Leech Therapy, Therapeutic Yoga and other procedures are being advised to patients. All medicines, Lab investigations and Panchakarma treatments are free of cost.

Now, our city has a robust Governmental medical infrastructure and the proposed Cancer Hospital will surely fill up a crucial gap. If their intended services could reach the public, then it will make a  great difference in the citizens’ quality of life in Mysuru city.

[To be continued]