PONDICHERRY: In its golden jubilee year, the Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research (JIPMER) has embarked on a major mission to upgrade facilities.

To begin with, new diagnostic tools like Multi-Slice C.T scanner and an MRI unit will replace the cathlab for treating heart ailments.

Union Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss will inaugurate the new facilities, set up at a cost of Rs. 15 crore, on Saturday, JIPMER Director K.S.V.K Subba Rao told reporters here on Thursday. The cathlab, established in 1994, had, of late, been facing continuous breakdowns. It had assisted in performing more than 10,000 angiographies and other interventional procedures and pacemaker implantations free of cost, recalled cardiology department head J. Balachander. Last month, two neurosurgeons joined the hospital, making it possible to opersate on accident victims suffering head injuries. Since they joined, 75 cases were attended to and two patients with brain tumour were operated upon, said Dr. Rao.

Other major projects in an advance stage of implementation were a 360-bed super specialty block, a 100-bed cancer centre and a 60-bed trauma care centre. Dr. Rao said these works would be taken up shortly. The super specialty block, established at a cost of Rs. 93 crore, would have 15 departments under one roof. Though the hospital treats cancer patients, it does not have a separate block. A few years ago, the Health Ministry accorded the hospital regional cancer centre status and sanctioned Rs. 3 crore. The project is expected to cost Rs. 8.2 crore.

Around 4,000 cancer cases are detected every year and 70 per cent of the patients come at an early stage, said radiotherapy department head K.S. Reddy.

JIPMER will start a four-year B.Sc. Nursing course from this year. Seventy-five students will be admitted in each batch through an all India common entrance exam. Twenty per cent of the seats will be reserved for students hailing from the Union Territory.

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