More facilities with hospital upgrade

Varkala: The upgrade of the government hospital at Varkala to a taluk hospital was some good news that the local residents had been long waiting for.

For long, the hospital had been facing a shortage of doctors and basic facilities. Now, the hospital has been developed to an extent that there are almost all facilities, including some specialities. The 66-bed hospital now has the departments of General Medicine, Orthopaedics, Paediatrics and ENT. �We have now posted a gynaecologist there and our attempt is to encourage the hospital to conduct deliveries also. A double-storey building in the hospital compound is now being renovated into a mini-operation theatre and a labour room and we hope to make these facilities functional soon, a senior Health Department official said. Health Minister P.K. Sreemathy, who inaugurated the new facilities at the hospital recently, had announced that all lab tests, including ECG and X-ray would be made free of cost to all patients soon. She also stressed that creating basic amenities for patients in all healthcare institutions was something that the Health Department would be focussing on. Rest room facilities for patients coming to the OP clinics would be introduced at the taluk hospital too, she had said.