Mangaluru: An advanced treatment block was inaugurated at KMC Hospital, Manipal on Christmas day by Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar. KMC is now the first hospital in India and second in the world to use the newly inaugurated IBM Watson Cognitive computing platform for treating cancer patients.
Giving his Christmas and New Year wishes to the hospital personnel, Parrikar said, “Jesus Christ had preached about providing service to the poor and needy. It is the perfect day to launch a medical facility which will enhance well-being of patients. In the modern generation of advanced health care, the new facility at KMC Hospital will be able to deliver world class service to the people.”
Keeping social service in mind, Parrikar said, “KMC has been doing a lot for the service of society, but it will be appreciable if KMC can help patients by treating them for a lower cost. Since the underprivileged should also be able to get treated at reasonable costs if not for free.”
Speaking about cashless transactions in hospitals, Parrikar said that few hospitals in Goa are doing really well after they started becoming cashless. “There are several advantages of hospitals going cashless. Introduction of Mediclaim facility is possible through the initiative of state government. Mediclaim policy has to reach the poor all over the country so that the eleigible patients get their treatment for free”, he added before wishing the best for KMC Hospital.
Pro-Chancellor of Manipal Univeristy Dr. H S Ballal was also present at the inauguration. He said, “Manipal Hospitals was the first institute in India to deliver healthcare with a private-public partnership. Wenlock and Lady Goschen Hospitals have KMC staff helping in serving the poor with the best medical treatment. We provide free healthcare upto Rs. 50,000 for BPL families under Manipal Arogya Scheme and a sum of around Rs. 20 crore will be kept aside every year for the same.”
As per the request of Parrikar, Dr. Ballal said that the facilities will be made reachable to the poorest person. Food and Civil Supplies Minsiter U T Khadar inaugurated the cognitive computing platform working on artificial intelligence system which records data from research papers across the globe to give a customized treatment to each patient.
The newly inaugurated hospital wing has seven operation theatres, 191 beds and 42 ICUs in total.
