Manipal Health Systems, India's largest healthcare management group has invested around Rs 2 crore to introduce the Catherization Laboratory, Dialysis Centre and Telemedicine unit at its Manipal Tumkur Hospital.

With these installations, Manipal offers patients of Tumkur easy and faster access to intensive care. In fact, it is for the first time that the Tumkur district will have a dedicated Cath Lab which will allow patients to access procedures like angiograms, angioplasties and intensive care. The district will now have the first dialysis unit. The telemedicine unit link it with the Manipal Hospital, in Bangalore.

According to R Basil, managing director & CEO, Manipal Health Systems said, "These introductions in the district hospital will allow people to have easy access. Out of the 5000 beds that we have under our management, 80 percent are in rural areas. The initiatives at Tumkur are in line with this philosophy."

"Many sick people often succumb during transit from neighbouring districts to Bangalore. The new facilities in Tumkur will help patients access advanced and better healthcare care well within the golden hour. Our intention is to bridge the gap between the healthcare delivery systems in urban areas and in rural areas. Beginning with Tumkur, we are geared to introduce advanced medical facilities in many other neighbouring districts in near future, stated Dr Nagendra Swamy, Group Director, Medical Services, Manipal Health Systems.

Many of the super specialist doctors and equipments are available in only in metros or large cities. Hitherto, patients with heart or kidney diseases in Tumkur had to travel to Bangalore for their further treatments. Heart and Kidney diseases are emotional and economical drain on the patient and his family and a facility nearer home will help reduce this burden.

The Cath Lab will be managed by Manipal Heart Foundation and currently Dr Anand Shenoy, Dr Mahanthesh Charantimath and Dr Chakrapani will be available for consultations. The cardiac unit comprises Cath equipment GE OEC 9900 Elite, a new generation mobile fluoroscopic imaging systems for minimally invasive surgery, navigation and 3D visualization instrumentation which is gold standard in image quality and patient safety for over thirty years. This unit will be able to provide early diagnosis to patients with angina or heart attack and treat them with suitable angioplasty or such procedures as well as ICU care.

The dialysis centre will be managed by Dr Sudarshan H Ballal, director Manipal Institute of Nephrology & Urology. The Dialysis unit consists of 2 Tina Baxter machines and 4 Frusenius Haemodialysis machines. These Dialysis machines are user friendly and with extra features and options that enables the clinician to develop individualized patient prescription. The machines benefits include touch screen technology for easy set-up and operation. The machines main use is for the treatment of patients requiring in-centre and satellite treatment. It also has a use in the treatment of those patients on home haemodialysis.

The telemedicine department is connected with high speed data connectivity systems to Manipal Hospital, Bangalore.