The under-construction building on the IGIC campus. Picture by Ranjeet Kumar Dey

The health department has decided to grant autonomy to Indira Gandhi Institute of Cardiology (IGIC) and minimise the government’s control over the heart hospital’s functioning.

Principal secretary, health, Vyasji chaired a meeting on Thursday where the decision to grant autonomy to the only state-run heart hospital was taken. Once autonomous, patients from economically backward families would be able to avail free or subsidised treatment there.

At the semi-autonomous Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS), patients have to pay for treatment. Its governing body, however, decided last Saturday to give patients free medicines for the first few critical hours in the emergency ward.

Officials of the health department said the heart hospital would be registered as an autonomous body under the Societies Registration Act, unlike the IGIMS for which a special proposal was formulated.

Vyasji told The Telegraph: “We want to develop the IGIC as a centre of excellence but it would not be possible without according it autonomy. So we have decided to accord the heart institution autonomy but the process would be different from the one adopted for the IGIMS. IGIC would be registered under the Societies Registration Act. At the IGIMS, one has to pay for availing different treatments but at the IGIC, services would be provided for free to people from the economically weaker sections of society.”

At present, pathological tests and bypass surgery are free at the IGIC for people from economically backward sections of society.

Vyasji said in case an economically backward person needs to undergo an angioplasty, nothing will be charged for it. The patient would only have to pay for the stent at a subsidised rate. A stent is a small support that is put inside a blood vessel in the body, to stop something blocking it. He added: “There will be many other criteria under which economically backward people would get free services.”

A health department official said: “Even though IGIC has a director, joint director and additional director, it does not have power to purchase medicines or equipment and recruit officials and doctors. Our aim is to minimise the government’s control over the hospital administration, allowing the officials to take day-to-day decisions independently.”

Another official added that the building construction department has been directed to complete the construction of the 10-storeyed building coming up on the IGIC campus. Starting in 2011, the second deadline for its completion was January this year.