Health and Family Welfare Minister Nabakishore Das on Tuesday said an advanced heart care centre has started functioning at the Capital Hospital premises here with eminent cardiologist Prabhat Kumar Dash as its Director.
He told reporters that the State Government would bear all the expenses of the heart patients who would undergo surgery at this unit.
Das said, “Taking the new infrastructure and the staff strength into consideration, the centre can conduct 15 to 20 surgeries every day.” Dr Prabhat Dash, who is presently working as the Head of the Department of Cardiology at the Satya Sai Institute of Higher Medical Sciences in Bengaluru, has nearly 30 years of experience in cardiac treatment. He was nominated for the Outstanding Health Professional Worldwide Award in 2007 and won the Rashtriya Rattan Award in 2008 for his contribution to the field of medicine in India.
Notably, Minister Das had announced about such a centre in November this year. An updated cathlab and modern infrastructure are available at the Capital Hospital.
“There will be no space crunch; and very soon the operation theatres for heart surgery will come up. Besides, modern equipments, special ICUs, additional beds will be procured where provisions of complex angiography, device closure, electrophysiological studies will be available,” he had said, adding, “Measures are being taken to rope in more doctors and associates.”
The Minister had visited the hospital earlier to take stock of the situation there. He is sure that there would be no delay in making the hospital's Cardiology Department a Centre of Excellence.
At present, nearly 3,500 patients are registering in the hospital’s outpatient department out of which over 100 are coming for treatment of cardiac ailments.