MKU: New-look health centre begins functioning on Monday

MADURAI: The health centre of Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU), which was renovated at a cost of Rs 2.5crore, is expected to start functioning in a full-fledged manner from Monday. Officials said that around 15 to 20 villages in and around MKU would benefit from this and the cost of treatment would also come down significantly.

It may be noted that during the meeting of the syndicate earlier this month, a resolution was passed regarding the opening of the centre by providing additional facilities at a lesser cost.

The hospital, which purchased a handful of equipment will now have facilities like modular operation theatre, treadmill with ECG, portable ventilator, fully-automated biochemistry analyser, hormone analyser, automated external defibrillator and so on. Among these, a few already existed, while the rest were newly-purchased or upgraded. The outpatient time – which used to be from 10am to 5pm – has been changed to 7am to 11am and 3pm and 7pm.

Officials said that so far, people in villages around Nagamalai Pudukottai, had to travel all the way to the city for treatment, blood tests and other basic medical check-ups, but now all these could be addressed at the health centre. They added that efficient care for road traffic accidents and other emergencies would also be given.

Prior to the renovation, the cost of treatment at the centre was said to be high -- even at par with some private hospitals -- but the charges would be reduced by around 50%.

Vice-chancellor M Krishnan told TOI that the main aim behind coming up with this initiative was to make available an accessible and affordable healthcare facility for people from nearby villages and also for the university staff and students.

“We’ve significantly reduced the treatment costs. For example, the diabetes test initially cost Rs 50, but now, it would be done for Rs 20, while scanning would be done for around half the price,” he said. Krishnan added that from Monday, pamphlets and notices would be issued across the district to make people aware about the centre and its new facilities. Earlier, the average outpatient count per day was around 50. “But with the very recent renovation, we’re expecting at least a 100% increase in the number of cases,” a source said.