Kolkata's Birla Hospital to Foray into Bangladesh

Kolkata's B.M. Birla Heart Research Centre is planning to set up a 200-bed super specialty hospital in Bangladesh.

Kolkata's B.M. Birla Heart Research Centre is planning to set up a 200-bed super specialty hospital in Bangladesh as well as eight diagnostic centres with an initial investment of Rs.300 million.

Suyash Borar, chief operating officer of the hospital, told IANS: "We are going to set up a hospital and eight other diagnostic centres in Bangladesh with an aim to provide quality and affordable healthcare service. Two diagnostic centres with modern equipment and tele-medicine facilities will come up in 2007."

"The 200-bed super speciality hospital will come up in Dhaka. The construction will start shortly and be completed by the end of 2008. All the eight diagnostic centres would be functional in three phases," Borar said.

Of the eight diagnostic centres two each will come up in Dhaka, Chittagong and one in Jessore. "Other cities will be decided upon soon," said Borar, the chief operating officer, who was recently in Delhi.

The B.M. Birla Heart Research Centre was the first hospital in India to receive the stamp of quality from the National Accreditation and Board for Hospitals and Health Service Providers (NABH) of the government.

Borar said the hospital would invest about Rs.700 million over the next three years in various projects across the country.

"We are going to set up a super speciality heart centre in Jamshedpur, while one multi-speciality hospital is coming up in Jaipur. Besides, over 15 diagnostic centres would also come up soon."

Aninda Chatterjee, medical superintendent of the hospital, said the first diagnostic centre would become operational soon in Bangalore.

"All these centres will have hi-tech facilities like cardiology, radiology, pharmacy, tele-medicine and OPD," said Chatterjee. Other diagnostic centers would come up in Orissa, Assam, Manipur and West Bengal.

"We are also setting up chain of hospitals in West Bengal - at Haldia, Siliguri, Rajarhat and a new one in Kolkata," Chatterjee said, adding that all the hospitals would be 150-bed plus capacity speciality hospitals.

NABH is a quality and safety certificate given by the Quality Council of India under the Ministry of Commerce. The certificate was given by President A.P.J Abdul Kalam on February 9.

Source-IANS
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