Fillip for health care

Describing addiction as an expensive habit, Bhatt said, “A kg of gutka costs Rs 1000. Were a gutka addict to understand this and break his habit, he could save in no time the amount he’d have to spend on cancer hospital in the future”.

Soon after the de-addiction centre was set up, the minister said, a 40-bed maternity home would be built at the SSG Hospital “to ensure safe pre- and post-natal care to women and children of marginalised groups”.

Also on the cards for the city are a CT Scan unit and a Rs 75 lakh-trauma centre. “We are also trying to set up a cancer research and cure institute in the city”, Bhatt said. “We are contacting medical college alumni, mostly those practising abroad, for help with funds for the cancer institute and are confident of a positive feedback”.

Describing SSG as “the people’s hospital”, the minister appealed to the general public, industrialists and voluntary organisations to contribute generously towards the hospital’s activities and goals. “We also have to identify sectors where human service initiatives need to be undertaken so that the facilities actually reach the needy,” he said.

The Laxmi Narayan Dev Institute of Urology will provide state-of-the art services, including dialysis, in kidney disorder treatment. Noted urologists from all over the country will be visiting the centre. Its four-storeyed building houses an operation theatre, general wards for men and women, special rooms for the patients, besides a library for medical students. The institute has been set up under the supervision and guidance of distinguished doctor G N Shukla.