Cool Ahmedabad

Gujarat will gift a new state-of-the-art super specialty cancer hospital to the world, very soon. The Gujarat Cancer Society will extend its operations to the New Swadeshi mill campus near Chamunda bridge on Naroda Road, beginning from November 11, the auspicious Labh Pancham day.

This new hospital will not be limited to cancer care alone. It will also serve as a multi-specialty hospital. A medical college will also be included as part of the campus.

Speaking about the development plan for the hospital and the medical college, state health minister Jaynarayan Vyas said, "While the general OPD will start from November 11 at the new campus, the hospital will formally commence on January 1, 2011.
The new medical college, named GCS Medical College, will start operations from the academic session in 2011." Vyas was speaking to the media on Tuesday at the site of the upcoming hospital and college, whose buildings are under construction.
Pankaj Patel, chairman and managing director of Zydus Cadila as also the chairman of the Gujarat Cancer Society, was present at the occasion, as were Dr Pankaj Shah, director of the Gujarat Cancer Research Institute and Dr Shilin Shukla.

"The hospital will have 350 beds in the first phase, and more than 650 will be added in the second. Hence, once the new hospital is completed, it will have a collective capacity of 1,000 beds," said Vyas, adding that the Gujarat Cancer Research Institute already has a capacity of 650 beds. "Hence, by the time the new hospital is ready, the institutions run by the Gujarat Cancer Society will have a total capacity of 1,700 beds," he said.

It seems the state government has learnt a lesson from its recent hiccups, those experienced in getting MCI's approval for the medical colleges at Sola and Vadodara, due to non-compliance of the norms regarding necessary staff and infrastructure.