Lalu to inaugurate super speciality railway hospital today

Reproduced form Times of India

PATNA: Railway minister Lalu Prasad will inaugurate the much awaited super speciality railway hospital built at Karbighaiya end of Patna Junction
at an estimated cost of Rs 70 crore on Thursday.

The outdoor patient department (OPD) will become operational in the first phase from Thursday itself. However, the hospital will start its full-fledged function soon to cater to the needs of railway employees, their dependents and the common people, said ECR deputy GM-cum-CPRO A K Chandra.

He told TOI that this hospital, which will be the first of its kind in the eastern region, is bound to become a state-of-the-art hospital for the common people in the state capital providing all kinds of facilities to them. As per the plan, the hospital will have four-storey building of which the third and fourth floor will be for super speciality while the ground, first and second floor will have facility of Central hospital-cum-diagnostic centre for both the railway employees and common people, he said.

He said it will have 100 beds for indoor patients providing specialised treatment of heart and renal diseases. There will be specialised treatment of diseases related to women as well at this hospital. The hospital will provide outdoor medical facilities to people round-the-clock. It will be fully air conditioned and the casualty wing will function on priority basis, he said, adding the hospital will provide free vaccinations to children. The CPRO informed that this hospital is the first of the railways built on public-private partnership basis. It will have a specially designed physiotherapy hall. Each indoor patient will have facility of separate well furnished cubicle, he said.

It is the fourth super speciality hospital of the Indian Railways in the country. The greatest advantage is that the consultancy fees of the doctors is Rs 40 only at this hospital while the bed charge is Rs 60 for each patient. The super speciality also includes minor surgery, Chandra said.

This hospital is likely to provide most advanced medicare facilities to about 1.5 lakh railway employees, particularly of the ECR. Apart from diagnostic treatment, it will now provide specialised treatment in ENT, and other diseases, the CPRO said.

Lalu had laid the foundation stone for the construction of the hospital on the sprawling four-acre land on July 30, 2005. It would be the first major project to be inaugurated by him during his tenure as the railway minister.