The Andhra Pradesh based NRI Medical College and General Hospital will soon set up a separate oncology centre in its existing campus at Vijaywada. The company will set up 50 beds in its new centre with an estimated investment of Rs 12 crore. The new centre will become operational by the end of October 2008 and the construction work of the new facility is already commenced.

Speaking to Pharmabiz, Rajeshwar Rao, chief administrative officer, NRI Medical College, said, "In our existing facility we have all super speciality facility, but we are finding it difficult to serve the best due to some shortcomings. So, in this regard we have planned to invest close to Rs 12 crore for setting up a separate oncology facility at our existing campus. We have already ordered two linear and accelerator machineries. Overall, we are investing Rs seven crore for the machineries and latest equipment".

The company is planning to recruit two doctors, two surgeons and two physicians in its new centre. Recently, it has installed the latest, 1.5 test MRI scanners and 16 Slide CD machine in its existing centre. Everyday around 15,000 patients are visiting to the hospital and nearly 600 patients are enrolled in the hospital for various therapeutic treatment. With the current manpower strength of 300, it is planning to hire 100 more manpower in its facility.

Currently, it has 750 beds facility of NRI General Hospital and NRI Academy of Science Medical College in Chinna Kakani, between Guntur and Vijayawada in Andhra Pradesh. It is offering various super specialities to the patients like cardiology, cardiothoracic surgery, neurology, gastroenterology, surgical gastroenterology, urology, endocrinology, paediatric surgery, ENT, rheumatology, plastic surgery and oncology.

Talking about further initiative, Rao said that the company is also in the process of setting up a separate hospital for the cardiology segment at Vijaywada. After some time we will encompass other speciality in this facility.