Mumbai:
The prestigious Cumballa Hill hospital, where former prime minister the late Rajiv Gandhi was born, will be pulled down. The four-storey, 50-bed facility at Kemps Corner will be replaced by a 22-storey, 220-bed multi-specialty hospital, which will also be the first hospital in South Mumbai to have a helipad.
For the expansion plans, the hospital's owners have bought an adjacent property. Construction work on this plot will start in six months, said hospital trustee Vijay Shetty. "We will create a 100-bed facility there, and once that is operational, will demolish the existing hospital building."
The hospital is among the city's top heart institutes, with many renowned cardiologists practicing there. Because of its low number of beds, demand far outstrips supply. Shetty said the new facilities will include IVF and neurosurgery and that for the hospital's owners, this is a dream project. Another highlight of the project is a 60,000-sq-feet parking facility. The hospital trust is headed by cardiologist KR Shetty. During Gandhi's birth, it was headed by Dr VN Shirodkar.
Though the hospital is largely used by residents of its posh neighbourhoods, it also offers subsidised medical facilities to the poor. "It is assumed that treatment costs at our hospital are very high just because we are located at Kemps Corner," Shetty said.
He added, "But our rates are reasonable. For instance, a bypass surgery costs just Rs2 lakh."
The hospital's director of medical administration Dr Niraj Uttamani said that unlike other hospitals of comparable size, the doctors at Cumballa Hill work exclusively for it. "We do not allow any doctor to just walk in and treat our patients. We only use the services of doctors who are on our panel.
"We also have an ethical committee to check the profile of doctors who apply to work with us."
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