Karnataka: state govt to launch new cancer and cardiology facility

Minister of State for Medical Education Sharanprakash Patil, who played a crucial role in getting these healthcare facilities established in Kalaburagi, told The Hindu on Sunday that both the full-fledged cancer hospital and the unit of the Jayadeva Institute of Cardiology will be inaugurated in the first week of April.

While patients holding BPL cards will get free treatment in these facilities, treatment for other patients will come at an affordable cost. Dr. Patil said that the 80-bed cancer hospital will have medical, surgical and gynaecology oncology departments along with radiotherapy, nuclear medicine and parent palliative departments. One state-of-the-art operation theatre is being established in the hospital and it will have the latest CT simulator, Gama knife and Brachotherapy facilities. To a question, he said that while the refurbished building is ready for occupation, tenders have been floated for installation of various equipment and furniture. The construction of a bunker to house the high-end Linear Accelerator (LINAC) radiotherapy unit to provide radiation treatment to cancer patients is in the advance stages of construction.

The LINAC unit would function in the hospital, along with the existing COBALT radiation therapy unit. Dr. Patil said that one full floor in the new government hospital has been allotted to the Jayadeva Institute of Cardiology to establish its unit. Installation of equipment is in full swing and an imported advanced Cathlab has arrived in an Indian port and it will soon be transported to Kalaburagi.