Soon, ortho implant facility at Ahmedabad municipal hospitals

Good news in store for patients from economically backward segments coming to hospitals run by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) for treatment. The civic body is all set to provide orthopedic implant facility at two more hospitals - LG hospital in Maninagar and Shardaben hospital in Saraspur. AMC is also mulling other facilities like fair price medicine shop and renovation of some of the wards.

At present, the civic body provides orthopaedic implant facility at the Vadilal Sarabhai (VS) hospital. AMC’s hospital committee also passed a resolution in this connection. “We will provide this facility in line with the policy adopted by VS hospital. The facility will be available within a month,” said Bhupendra Shah, chairman of AMC’s hospital committee. He further said that the civic body has fixed the rate and asked the fair price medicine shop at VS hospital to provide equipment for surgery.

According to sources, patients had to shell out huge money for orthopaedic implant at private hospitals because of nexus among medical shops, agents and doctors of the hospitals. “The civic body’s move aims at breaking the nexus in larger interest of the patients,” said sources.

Moreover, AMC also plans to set up fair price medical shop within the premises of both the hospitals to facilitate availability of medicines at discounted rates to patients.  In addition to this, the AMC will shift the burns ward at Shardaben hospital to the newly-built building. At present, the burns ward and the pediatric wards are located in the same unit which has not gone down well with the patients. “After shifting burns ward, the pediatric ward would become bigger,” Shah said.