Nearly four years after it was constructed by the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), the four-storey hospital on Broadway Road was inaugurated by Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa on Wednesday.
The 130-bed super-speciality hospital, named Charaka Super-speciality Hospital, has been developed by the Infosys Foundation at a cost of ₹11 crore. The hospital will now be managed by the Bowring and Lady Curzon Hospital and Research Centre. It will have 30 doctors, 10 specialists, a superintendent, two pharmacists, a dietician, six staff nurses and six lab technicians.
After inaugurating the facility, Mr. Yediyurappa said that the super-speciality hospital had ventilators as well as an ICU.
Medical Education Minister K. Sudhakar said following the outbreak of COVID-19, the government approached Infosys Foundation to develop the hospital.
Facility in Mysuru
Meanwhile, in Mysuru, the unoccupied Trauma Care Centre on K.R.S. Road, which was inaugurated long ago but remained unused for want of equipment, is being converted into the second-largest COVID-19 hospital.
As the facility is being designed to cater to seriously-ill COVID-19 patients, who require oxygen support, an oxygen concentrator plant (which sources oxygen from atmospheric air) is being established in the hospital premises to overcome any shortage of liquid oxygen supply once it becomes functional.
The trauma care centre comes under the control of Mysore Medical College and Research Institute (MMCRI), which is currently running the designated COVID-19 hospital. The MMCRI has deputed its team of doctors and staff in addition to handling patients, especially affected by SARI and ILI, at the Jayadeva block in the K.R. Hospital premises.