CHENNAI : Work on a foot over bridge connecting the paediatric block with the main block at Government Stanley Hospital is expected to commence shortly. The bridge will help to take children from the main hospital to the paediatric block without having to cross Mint Street.

Doctors have suggested including a ramp along with a lift besides a staircase. The eight-storey paediatric block receives around 1,200 children every Monday and Saturday and around 600 on other working days.

Meanwhile, the inauguration of the new gastroenterology block in the north Chennai hospital is awaiting a suitable date from the Chief Minister, said Health Minister K.K.S.S.R. Ramachandran. The building, with 120 beds, will be a self-contained department, with operation theatres and facilities to maintain cadavers for liver transplant. The building cost Rs. 7 crore and equipment worth Rs. 7 crore will be installed. This will make Stanley the first hospital in the Government sector to have a speciality block for gastrointestinal diseases, he said. "We want to make it a model for the entire country."

R. Surendran, head of the department, said 30 percent of any hospital referrals will be for gastrointestinal diseases. "Only the most complicated cases are referred to us. It takes three to four weeks to stabilise a patient before surgery and another month post-surgery before he can be discharged," he said.

In 1999, the department began a pay ward with 20 beds. Patients are charged a one-time payment of Rs. 5000. The money is collected as demand draft in the name of Tamil Nadu Medical Services Commission. Payment for the doctors, nurses and ward boys and maintenance of the ward comes from this fund. The ward has a round-the-clock duty doctor and nurses. It has four assistant professors, three special trainers, six postgraduate students and two or three visiting faculty round the year.

The department received ISO certification in 2000 and the death rate due to gastro-intestinal bleed problems is four percent, compared to the world average of 10-15 percent, said Dr. Surendran.

Operation theatres commissioned

In another fortnight the 10 operation theatres on the first floor of the eight-floor surgical block in Government Stanley Hospital will become functional, said the hospital dean, D.R. Gunasekaran.

Though the minister formally commissioned the theatres on Tuesday they will become functional only after the mandatory sterilisation procedure.

The theatres had been inoperational for nearly two-and-a-half years either due to electrical problems and faulty air-conditioners.

A year ago, the floor, which was used for surgeries by speciality departments, was shut down.

Since then dozens of surgeries were postponed. Emergency procedures were taken up but the waiting list of patients in the urology and gastroenterology departments and general non-emergency procedures were postponed for several months in some cases.

© Copyright 2000 - 2009 The Hindu