IGMC proposes establishment of advanced cardiac center

Witnessing the steady rise in the number of premature deaths owing to heart diseases in Himachal, the establishment of a state of the art regional advanced cardiac center in Shimla has been proposed.

Witnessing the steady rise in the number of premature deaths owing to heart diseases in Himachal, the establishment of a state of the art regional advanced cardiac center in Shimla has been proposed.

The proposal has been sent to the state government for consideration by Indira Gandhi Medical College (IGMC) department of Cardiology head P C Negi. Chamyana, 8 km from Shimla has been proposed as the site for the centre. The estimated cost of the project would be at a tune of Rs 213 crores.

With the thrust on advanced research and medical education, Negi justified that the existing infrastructure in the department of cardiology and cardiothoracic surgery and sporting departments are either non-existent or are insufficient to fulfill the proposed objectives of an advanced cardiac center.

"The aim to impart quality education in diverse field in cardiovascular medicine for generating the trained and highly skilled manpower for promoting research, education and patient care, public heath to achieve the mission of reducing the burden of heart diseases can be achieved with the coming up of such a centre," Negi said.

According to the roadmap for establishing regional centre the infrastructure required includes 100 'bigas' of land to construct housing to facilitate the creation of cardiology department, cardiothoracic surgery department, cardiac anesthesia, cardiac radiology, department of Biochemistry, department of Biotechnology, department of Nuclear Medicine, department of blood transfusion medicine, department of cardiology technician training center, space for auditorium and virtual theatre.

Besides cardiology and cardiothoracic surgery, the other sub-specialty departments which need to be established are that of, cardiac radiology, cardiac nuclear medicine, blood transfusion medicine, cardiac anesthesia, cardiac biochemistry, biotechnology, health informatics and cardiac lab technologies.

The estimated funds projected other than Rs 100 crores for construction of centre, were Rs 100 crores for purchase of equipment and Rs 14 crores per annum for salaries of staff.