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Apollo Hospital in Colombo

By Nirupama Subramanian

COLOMBO June 7. The Sri Lankan President, Chandrika Kumaratunga, and the Prime Minister, Ranil Wickremesinghe, today jointly declared open the 500-bed Apollo Hospital here and described it as the grand symbol of co-operation between Sri Lanka and India.

The architecturally imposing 10-storeyed hospital is billed as the forerunner of a revolution in health care in Sri Lanka, and an instrument with which to make the island nation a hub for medical services from Seychelles to Indonesia.

``Apollo will be a landmark in the new chapter of co-operation between India and Sri Lanka,'' Ms. Kumaratunga said in her inaugural address, adding that it represented what the two countries could do when they pooled their resources. Ms. Kumaratunga, who is said to have pushed the project from its initial stages, said through Apollo, Sri Lanka had got itself the most modern hospital.

Mr. Wickremesinghe described it as a "new chapter'' in health care in Sri Lanka. ``It is a boon for us in Sri Lanka that we have this hospital. A number of people who travel abroad for medical treatment can now get it here,'' he said. The hospital is equipped with state-of-the-art facilities, some of which, according to the chairman of the Apollo Hospitals, Dr. Pratap C Reddy, were not available even in the group's hospitals in India.

This is Apollo's first overseas venture and its 22nd hospital. The hospital is run by both Indian and Sri Lankan doctors. There are 20 doctors and over 250 nurses from India working at the hospital at present.

Inaugurating a partnership with Sankara Nethralaya of Chennai, Dr. Reddy announced that the ophthalmology unit would be run by the famed eye hospital where hundreds of Sri Lankans go for treatment. The head of Sankara Netralaya, Dr. S.S. Badrinath, was also present at the inauguration. ``The hospital will provide succour to all its patients along the same lines as anywhere else in the world,'' Dr. Reddy said in his opening remarks. The Indian High Commissioner, Gopalkrishna Gandhi, described Apollo as a "celebration of the great potential and promise and the great achievements of this part of the world''.

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