100-bed infrastructure ready; waits for equipment, staff 

By M.T. Yogesh Kumar

A 69-year-old maternity hospital has paved way for a high-tech hospital in city and is waiting for modern equipment, service-minded doctors and staff to fill the sections. Thousands of Mysureans have taken birth at this hospital and the new spacious structure is the result of political will, foresight and better utilisation of public funds. 

Seth Mohandas Tulsidas Hospital on JLB Road is all set to be another major Government maternity hospital in city after Cheluvamba Hospital and it will cater to the needs of economically weaker sections of people from Mysuru, Hunsur, H.D. Kote, Saragur, K.R. Nagar and even Nanjangud.

They will get a modern hospital with latest equipment to care for pregnant women and neo-natal mothers and their babies. A heartening factor is that Seth Mohandas Tulsidas Hospital will ease the burden of the overcrowded Cheluvamba Hospital where pregnant women and neo-natal mothers are sometimes forced to sleep on the floors due to lack of beds. 

Need for another maternity hospital

The 100-bed hospital has been constructed at a cost of Rs. 20 crore. Earlier, Mysuru had only K.R. Hospital, PKTB Sanatorium and Cheluvamba Hospital to cater to a large population. Gradually, many hi-tech hospitals came up in city like Sri Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences and Research, Trauma Centre, District Hospital that has been converted into a speciality COVID-19 Hospital and Government Ayurvedic Hi-tech Panchakarma Hospital. 

Despite these hospitals, a need for another modern maternity hospital arose and now it has been realised with the transformed Seth Mohandas Tulsidas Hospital on JLB Road. If equipment is purchased along with technologies needed for a good maternity hospital and if staff including doctors, nurses and supporting employees are appointed, the new hospital is ready to function from February 2021. 

Opened in 1949

The 30-bed Seth Mohandas Tulsidas Maternity Hospital was inaugurated on July 9, 1949 by the then Maharaja of Mysore Jayachamaraja Wadiyar. The hospital completed 69 years in 2018 and now it has completed 71 years. As the structure was dilapidated, very rarely people used to visit the hospital after 2010. 

Now the new hospital has been built from the funds sanctioned by the Central Government under National Health Mission. In all, Rs. 16.50 crore has been spent on constructing the building and Rs. 3.50 crore has been reserved to buy equipment, beds and furniture. 

Project to Centre

This project was envisaged in 2012 when the current MLA S.A. Ramdas was the District in-Charge and Medical Education Minister. He had approached the Centre with a proposal to demolish the existing structure and construct a new hospital but funds were not released then. In 2016-17, the then Krishnaraja MLA M.K. Somashekar and the then Chamaraja MLA Vasu had brought pressure on the then Chief Minister Siddharamaiah to construct a new hospital and a survey was done. Later, as Mysuru needed a District Hospital, a proposal was floated to convert Seth Mohandas Tulsidas Maternity Hospital into a District Hospital as it had a vast campus. 

Ultimately, the District Hospital went to Chamaraja Constituency and was built on KRS Road. Ramdas again got elected as MLA and he pursued the matter with the Centre. Funds were released under National Health Mission. The old structure that served people since 1949 was demolished in November 2018. 

A vast facility

The hospital has been built on a total floor area of 4,870.69 sq.mts. The ground floor measures 2,275.59 sq. mts. while the first floor measures 2,335.79 sq.mts and the second floor measures 259.31 sq.mts.

The ground floor will have Out Patient Department (OPD), Senior Citizen treatment room, X-ray unit and ultra sound rooms, laboratory, blood bank, minor operation theatre, godown for storing medicines and a medical dispensary, a ramp and Sewage Treatment Plant. There will also be autoclave, sterile store and a mortuary.

There will also be a Ward Block with nine wards and six beds in each, on the first floor. Apart from this, it will also have a Paediatric heart care room, a 15 KV generator set will be installed; fire safety measures will be in place along with rainwater harvesting.

The rest of the space will house minor and major operation theatre, meeting hall, staff room, administrative office, medical officer’s chamber, duty doctors’ rooms and nurses’ rooms and immunisation room and paediatric specialists’ room. KBR Infratech, Bengaluru, has completed the construction at a cost of Rs. 19,50,31,000 (Rs.19.50 crore).

About Seth Mohandas Tulsidas Maternity Hospital

How the hospital came to be known as Seth Mohandas Tulsidas Maternity Hospital? One noble-intended Tulsidas wanted to build a maternity hospital for people of Mysuru and surrounding villages in post-Independent India. He had vast tracks of land and he had donated 5.17 acres of land near JLB Road. The hospital was constructed and named Seth Mohandas Tulsidas Maternity Hospital and the facility was inaugurated by Jayachamaraja Wadiyar in 1949. Even now Tulsidas is known to people of Mysuru through the hospital that bears his name.