Jamshedpur, Feb. 21: Specialised cardiac care is likely to be made available at four district hospitals and two medical colleges of the state within a year, courtesy an MoU signed with a Kerala-based hospital chain at last week's Momentum Jharkhand.

Meditrina Group of Hospitals, which has been running a hospital in Adityapur in Seraikela-Kharsawan district since 2015, will be investing over Rs 200 crore to set up cath labs and other cardiac facilities at all state-run medical colleges and hospitals and district hospitals in the next three-years.

"We had expressed our interest for setting up cardiac care facilities at government hospitals during a meeting with additional chief secretary, health, Sudhir Tripathi earlier this month and inked an agreement with the government during the Global Investors' Summit in Ranchi," said Amitav Chatterjee, the director and cluster head of Meditrina in Jharkhand.

He said in the first phase, they would be setting up cath lab and other cardiac care facilities at four district hospitals in East Singhbhum (near Khasmahal), West Singhbhum (near Chaibasa), Seraikela-Kharsawan (near Seraikela) and Dumka within this year.

"We are also keen on developing similar facilities at the government medical college and hospital in Jamshedpur and Dhanbad by this year," he added.

As of now, treatment for critical cardiac patients is available only at Ranchi's Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS), the state's largest and most busy hospital.

The Kollam-based Meditrina Group is also setting up a 100-bed cardiac care super specialty hospital near Chas in Bokaro. "We are going to inaugurate our facility at Bokaro by July and apart from cardiac care, it would also offer neurology, gastroenterology, orthopaedic and gynaecology," said Chatterjee.

According to health experts, investments to the tune of Rs 10 crore to Rs 15 crore would be required to set up cardiac facilities in each unit comprising cath lab and necessary equipments like a 7-8 bed ICU, defibrillator, temporary pacemakers, ventilators etc.

Meditrina Hospital says they would offer treatment as per Central Government Health Schemes (CGHS) for government employees while those hailing from economically weaker sections of society could avail the benefits of the Mukhya Mantri Gambhir Bimari Upchar Yojana (CM's critical disease treatment scheme) and get free treatment.

"Our MoU with the government empanels us with this two schemes," said Chatterjee.

He said the new units at district hospitals would also offer training in medical skills. "We would be training OT technicians and cath lab technicians as a part of the government's skill development programme," he said.