Kerala: Work on Tata hospital in Kasaragod nears completion

KANNUR: The health scenario in Kasaragod is fast changing in the Covid days, with more facilities coming up in the district.

The work on the specialty hospital by Tata Group is fast progressing, and the installation of the prefabricated structures has started after completing the earth work. The hospital is coming up at Thekkil at Chemmanad.

Also the taluk hospital at Mangalpadi in Manjeshwaram has got 10 dialysis machines.

The work on the isolation unit of the hospital has started and it is expected that the entire hospital, being built using prefabricated technology, would be completed in the next couple of weeks.

The hospital, announced by Tata Group as part of its corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiative, is expected to cost around Rs 15 crore and it would be functioning as a permanent facility, which could also handle an emergency situation like Covid. The hospital will have 540 beds, isolations wards, ICU and other facilities.

Meanwhile, since the general hospital in Kasaragod is back to routine functioning, it would also benefit the patients. The facilities have been improved here to treat Covid patients.

The 10 dialysis machines at the taluk hospital at Mangalpadi were donated by Aishal Foundation, a charitable trust based in the district. The machines, which cost around Rs 75 lakh, were handed over to the hospital authorities by the trust members on Friday.

This is a simple gesture of the support that the private sector is extending to the health centres in the government sector and this would help reduce the dependence on the Mangaluru hospitals for dialysis, said the trust chairman Abdul Latheef.

The hospital, under Manjeshwaram block panchayat, has already set up the dialysis block by spending Rs 50 lakh from the fund of former MLA (late) P B Abdul Razak , and they were waiting for the machines, said panchayat president A K M Ashraf.

Using these machines, around 20 dialysis can be done in two shifts in a day. Till the government appoints the staff, the panchayat is planning to appoint them by setting up a society.

There are hundreds of people who go to Mangaluru for dialysis and now the district has the facility to do dialysis of over 100 patients a day, according to the district administration, which expects that the district would soon be self-reliant at the health front.