COIMBATORE: A facility for heart and other organ transplantation will be set up in Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH) in the near future, Tamil Nadu Health Minister Vijaya Bhaskar said here on Saturday.

Talking to reporters after inaugurating the cathlab constructed at a cost of Rs. 6 crores in the hospital, Vijaya Bhaskar said the new lab will be helpful to carry out complicated heart surgeries. “In the near future, a facility for heart and other organ transplantation will be set up in CMCH for the benefit of the people in the region,” he said.

Stating that a dialysis machine worth Rs. 60 lakhs will be soon installed in the hospital, he said it has also been decided to install a pipeline cathlab, valued at Rs. 8 crores, as was available in developed countries.

“CT Scans will be provided at ESI Hospital in Singanallur in the city and Mettupalayam Government Hospital,” he said.

The CMCH has so far implanted Cochlear hearing aids on 186 persons, claimed to be a record in the Government hospitals in the country, he said.

On AIIMS, Vijaya Bhaskar said that the State Government has already sent the proposals to the Centre and a final decision was awaited from it.

“With five more new dialysis machines, there are totally 15 machines in the hospital now. Forty-five patients can undergo dialysis every day,” Municipal Administration Minister S.P. Velumani said.

“The cathlab is necessary to carry out complicated heart surgeries and also to perform angiogram, angioplasty, open heart surgery and remove block in the arteries. People need not go any ore to private hospitals for the purpose,” he said.