Global Hospitals coming to city of Joy

A dedicated 'organ transplant hospital' in the country will be set up in Kolkata which will be a pioneering effort .

Spread over a 10-acre plot, the Rs 125-150 crore project will be set up by Hyderabad-based Global Hospitals Group, headed by surgical gastro-enterologist and managing director Dr K Ravindranath.

The hospital will have 750 beds and 150 full-time specialists in the field of liver diseases, gastro-enterology, heart, kidney and other specialities, with the primary focus on transplants of organs like liver, heart, kidney and bone marrow.

The key facility at the hospital will be the city’s first bone and heart value bank. Besides, it will have hotels and malls on the campus. To start with, the hospital will have 300 beds, which will be increased gradually. Non-resident Indian transplant experts from the US and the UK have expressed their desire to work full-time in the proposed hospital.

The 150-bed Global Hospital had recently hit the headlines after a Pakistani boy underwent a heart transplant at the hospital. The Group’s decision is seen as a major achievement for the State Government, as Dr Ravindranath had earlier decided to set up the hospital in Mumbai, but repeated representations by Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) clinched the deal in favour of Kolkata. Efforts are on to rope in the best of doctors from All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and PG Institute, Chandigarh for the project. “Kolkata has a huge potential to become a major healthcare hub of the country, besides being the gateway to the entire South East Asia and Europe,” said Dr Ravindranath.

The hospital is basically aimed for overseas patients from these regions. “More and more patients from the west will come to India as the cost of healthcare is much higher there than in India,” he added. The hospital will have provision for free-beds for poor.