With the investment of Rs. 1 crore, the Aundh Chest Hospital (ACH) in Pune has gained the status of a civil and general hospital, one month back. The hospital would now witness the installation of 14 specialty departments like orthopedic surgery, medicine, psychiatry and ENT. The said investment, sanctioned by the state government, would also be used to upgrade casualty, postmortem and trauma units.

The general status given to the hospital would lessen the load on the Sassoon General Hospital (SGH), said superintendent of ACH, Dr. Ulhas Jadhav. The ACH was established in 1949 mainly for the patients suffering from Tuberculosis. However, now 120 beds will be reserved for TB patients and 280 for the general section.

The SGH's district mobile Ophthalmic Unit has been shifted to ACH and Tubectomies and Vasectomies are being performed here, said Dr. Jadhav. He further added that the Cardiac Unit has been set up at the SGH, as it was not feasible to shift the CATH Lab to ACH. But Dr. Jadhav also expressed hopes of starting the Cardiac Unit at ACH in near future.

Dr. Arvind Inamdar, Head of the Cardiac Unit at SGH, said that already more than 30 cardiac operations had been performed and angioplasties would be taken up next week. Patients would also be examined under the Jeevandayi scheme.