Kolkata: The superspecialty hospital of IIT Kharagpur — Dr B C Roy Institute of Medical Science & Research — is expected to start its outdoor patients department (OPD) by the end of the year, an institute spokesperson said Monday.
The first phase of the indoor facilities with 400 beds is scheduled to start next year.
According to the authorities, once the hospital is operational, the MBBS programme will be rolled out for 50 students in phase I. The course curriculum will be as per Medical Council of India (MCI) guidelines.
The number of seats in the MBBS course would be raised to 100 with the scaling up of the hospital to 750 beds in phase II, IIT Kharagpur Officiating Director Sriman Kumar Bhattacharyya said.
Postgraduate degrees will be introduced eventually. Health care data sciences and data analytics would also be among the primary thrust areas as the premier institute ventures deeper into medical research.
While the MBBS and postgraduate degrees along with the academic affairs will be managed by IIT Kharagpur, the day-to-day hospital management will be overseen by the special purpose vehicle floated under Section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013.
The hospital’s board of directors will be headed by the IIT Kharagpur Director and will include senior IIT faculty. “A key initiative of the hospital would be to cater to the huge community who are currently away from the reach of superspecialty healthcare services either due to distance or affordability,” Bhattacharyya said.
The hospital, to be run on a cross-subsidy model in a not-for-profit mode, would have 10 per cent free beds.
A total of 65 per cent of the beds would be charged as per the rates in the central and state health insurance schemes, Bhattacharyya said.
Anticipating a heavy influx of patients, the Institute has decided to set up mobile healthcare units to cater to the healthcare needs in the immediate neighbourhood.
Basic diagnostics and treatment will be done by these mobile units, which will reduce the patient load in the hospital, said Satadal Saha, project director and visiting faculty at IIT Kharagpur.
“The Dr BC Roy Institute of Medical Science and Research will be a health ecosystem and not just a hospital. It will cover the entire spectrum of tertiary healthcare, high-quality medical education (undergraduate and postgraduate), allied health education (nurses, allied health professionals), inter- and multi-disciplinary research that brings all three stakeholders — doctors, engineers and patents — together.
“Besides, it will provide rural primary care and public healthcare, technology innovations that work in the resource-constrained environment of extreme-point-of-care, and a sustainable model that holds the entire elements together in a synergistic manner,” said Saha.
The institute has already formed collaborations with All India Institutes of Medical Sciences, Tata Medical Center and South Eastern Railway Hospital. It has also set up a Common Research and Technology Development Hub supported by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research to promote healthcare technology innovation and supporting manufacturing by MSMEs.
