Raichur-based 350-bed Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital funded by OPEC (Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries) will become fully operational in the first week of February. This most modern hospital in the State located in the outskirts of Raichur district was well-known for its state-of the art equipment lying idle and gathering dust as it was unused by surgeons, specialists and technicians who refused to give up their practice in bigger cities to work here.

Dr. Umapathy Panyala, chief executive officer, Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital, which is run by the Karnataka government and Apollo Group Hospitals said that the all six super specialties branches will be offered: cardiology, nephrology, oncology, neurology, plastic surgery and paediatrics.

He said the government had signed a pact with the Apollo Hospital in November 2001 to make the hospital here functional within 18 months.

Dr. Panyala said the hospital would become one of the reference centres in south India once it started services in all specialities. Already the management had appointed specialists to handle branches such as cardiology, urology, orthopaedics, gynaecology, paediatrics, gastroenteritis and surgeries.

Technicians had been appointed to handle sophisticated equipment such as CT-Scan, cathlab, ultrasound and x-ray. The government had agreed to release Rs. 18 crore to complete the civil work and installation of equipment. But so far, it had released Rs. 4 crore and had promised to release the remaining amount in the next four months. However, the management had decided to make the hospital fully functional by this month end or in the first week of February. Besides, providing prompt services at the out-patient department, it recently opened an emergency ward and a 100-bed in-patient ward. He said that the hospital was providing free treatment to the poor.

The super speciality hospital spread over 78 acres and completed in June 1999, was set up to treat poor patients of the north Karnataka and south Maharashtra regions. The hospital has equipment like CT Scanner, cath Lab video endoscopy and X-ray machines that are ready for use.

About the CT scan equipment malfunctioning, Dr. Panyala said that when the management took over the hospital in April 2002 and found that the x-ray tube of the scanner was not working properly as the equipment had been kept idle during warranty period. Now Siemens India Ltd. supplier of the equipment had rectified the fault.

According to officials of the Karnataka health department in Bangalore, the hospital is in the process of inducting 36 doctors, 18 specialists, 72 nurses, and 30-D group workers for its functioning.

The hospital is comparable to the best private hospitals in terms of facilities and equipment in Bangalore. However specialist doctors will not give up their private practise in Bangalore and other cities to come to this backward district, said a government health officer.

When the OPEC wanted to set-up a hospital in a backward region, and having a large concentration of Muslim population, they chose Raichur. The cost of the hospital project was initially pegged at Rs. 25 crore but it has exceeded Rs. 40 crore following delays ever since the then chief minister of the state, S Bangarappa, laid the foundation stone in May 1992.