The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Infosys lends a helping hand to visitors at MCH

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Friday, May 30, 2008
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Infosys lends a helping hand to visitors at MCH

Staff Reporter

The IT major offers to build a
Rs.10-lakh waiting area in front of
the OP block.

Thiruvananthapuram: The Thiruvananthapuram Medical College Hospital is going in for corporate sponsorship to spruce up its exteriors and also to provide better comfort to the thousands visiting the hospital daily.

The need for a proper waiting area at MCH has become acute after the hospital began to strictly enforce the pass system. Restricted entry to the wards has resulted in better hygiene and cleanliness, but for those queuing up to buy passes the lack of common amenities and the absence of a roofed space creates some hardships.

The MCH authorities are now holding talks with various corporate bodies on how more common amenities can be set up for patients and visitors to the hospital. IT giant Infosys, which is setting up its own campus at Technopark, has been the first to offer a helping hand. It is through the initiative of Special Secretary (Health) Usha Titus that this offer came through.

Infosys has offered to construct a common waiting area at the main entrance to the out-patient (OP) block at an estimated cost of Rs.10 lakh, according to MCH authorities. The idea is to create a covered waiting area of about 1,000 sq.ft. with adequate seating and a television. The structure, which will be a semi-permanent one with light roofing, can be dismantled and set up elsewhere as required.

The plan has already been approved and work can be started as soon as the discussions are finalised. According to an MCH official, the one concern expressed by Infosys was whether the MCH authorities would be able to maintain the area properly.

Over the years as the hospital expanded and the number of speciality departments went up, every available space on the hospital campus was taken up for setting up out-patient and intensive care units. The MCH authorities have not been able to do much about the lack of common spaces such as dining halls and rest rooms for visitors to the hospital owing to the acute shortage of space. Now, only the medicine ward has a dining area near the medical ICU.

However, things will be quite different now as two multi-storeyed blocks — the new OP and super speciality blocks — are getting ready under the Rs.120-crore Prime Minister’s Swasthya Suraksha Yojana.

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