KOCHI : The Ernakulam General Hospital is set to open a new dialysis unit with 54 dialysis machines. Minister for Health and Family Welfare Veena George will inaugurate the unit on January 19.
The facility has couches, monitors and other life-saving equipment, besides dialysis machines, General Hospital superintendent Dr Shahir Shah said.
“The new facility will be one of the largest units in the country and the hospital will have the highest number of dialysis machines in the state. We expect to conduct more than 150 dialysis procedures every day in three shifts,” said Dr Shahir.
The three-storey dialysis unit has been built using Rs 2 crore received from the MLA fund of Hibi Eden, who was then the Ernakulam MLA. So far, a total of Rs 10 crore has been spent on the project.
“Along with the Rs 2 crore from the MLA fund, we utilised Rs 1.5 crore from the hospital development fund and also received CSR funds from Inkel, Cochin Shipyard, Synthite, various Rotary Clubs, and Indian Oil,” he added.
Major milestone
The hospital achieved another milestone a couple of months ago by performing kidney transplant surgery, becoming the first district-level hospital in the government sector to do so. A 28-year-old man received a kidney from his mother at the hospital in November 2023. “Eighteen patients have already registered for kidney transplant,” hospital superintendent Dr Shahir Shah said.