The 250-bed multi-specialty Bhagwan Mahaveer Jain Hospital has worked out an investment plan to the tune of Rs 200 crore which includes a massive expansion plan to increase its total bed strength to 750 by 2004-end. The full-fledged additional 500-bed facility in its present 5-acre campus located in the heart of Bangalore will come up at a cost of around Rs. 130 crore.

The hospital is making efforts to obtain a 25 acres plot from the Karnataka Industrial Area Development Board in the outskirts of the city either on Bannerghatta Road or Hosur Road where it will set up a medical college at a cost of Rs. 70 crore in 2005.
The new 500-bed facility, will be an eight storied hi-tech complex and will offer specialties like maternal foetal medicine, infertility centre, stereo static surgery for oncology, minimal invasive surgery wing, intensive care units, neurosurgery complex, laser therapy centre, dedicated surgical wings for endocrine surgery, hepatobilary surgery, gastrointestinal surgery, plastic surgery and minimal vascular surgery.

In April, this year the hospital will commission a Coma Centre, which is coming up at a cost of Rs. 60 lakh to handle stroke and trauma cases. This will be followed by the opening up of the state-of-the-art diagnostic laboratory in May 2004. The hospital has allocated Rs. 5 crore to invest for GE Medical Systems' 4-D ultrasound equipment along with a latest multi-slice CT., latest mammography machine, C-Arm with DSA radiological interventions, 500 Image intensifier TV, bone density metre and other related machines. The laboratory will have the networked workstations where the radiologists will be linked with consultants in the hospital.

In November 2003, the College of Nursing was set up at a cost of Rs. 1.5 crore and this is attached to the 250-bed Bhagwan Mahaveer Jain Hospital. The institution offers the BSc. Nursing programme is approved by the Indian Nursing Council, affiliated by the Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences, recognised by the government of Karnataka and Karnataka Nursing Council. The first 4-year degree course has commenced classes where 40 students are enrolled.

"As a healthcare provider, we are looked up as a corporate hospital with a charitable purpose, which is funded by the Jain community. The facility is accessed by all patients from all strata of society and recently the government of Karnataka has approved its staff for treatment at the facility," said Dr. Kishore Murthy, chief executive officer, Bhagwan Mahaveer Jain Hospital.

The hospital, a unit of Bhagwan Mahaveer Jain Memorial Trust, is headed by Sampathraj Gadia.