Times of India
26 October 2010
Bangalore, India

1st Low–Cost Hosp To Open In Mysore
Want your heart fixed for just Rs 50,000 by skilled surgeons in a top hospital with a family member to care for you? Your wish will soon come true. For, India’s first low–cost hospital will be up and running in Mysore early next year.

These state–of–the art hospitals will be built at a cost of Rs 16 crore, about one–fifth the cost of constructing a 300–bed super–speciality hospital. The brainchild of renowned cardio surgeon Dr Devi Shetty, this unique hospital will be piloted in Mysore and then in Siliguri (West Bengal) and Bhubaneswar (Orissa). The Union health ministry has evinced interest in the project.

"The state government has given us 10 acres and the plan is to set up 50 hospitals in two years. We need to perform 25 lakh heart surgeries in the country every year , but now we do only 90,000 surgeries," Dr Shetty said.

Narayana Hrudayalaya has tied up with Larsen & Toubro to execute the Mysore project which uses prefabricated material transported from Puducherry. The general wards will receive daylight to the desired levels. Only the OT complex and pre/post operation and ICU areas will have a conventional concrete structure. "Most hospitals have huge vertical structures with heavy airconditioning. The best sanitizer for a hospital is sunlight and fresh air. We don’t want patients to feel intimidated.

Besides having the best medical facilities, we’ll allow family member to provide moral support to patients," Dr Shetty said. Heart surgeries will be performed for Rs 50,000 and other surgeries like gall bladder and hernia will cost between Rs 10,000 and Rs 15,000. While hospitals in Mysore, Bhubaneswar and Siliguri will come up on land given at subsidized rates, other hospitals will come up on the public private partnership model.