Mangaluru (The Hindu): Minister for Health and Family Welfare U.T. Khader has ruled out setting up a government medical college outside the city, saying that a huge amount of money will have to be spent on creating new infrastructure there.

Talking to presspersons after inaugurating a renovated physiotherapy centre at the Government Wenlock Hosptial here, Mr. Khader said that though land would be available at Bantwal, Puttur or Belthangady taluks, the government would have to spend Rs. 10,000 crore for infrastructure. “Moreover, it is also difficult to get 800 in-patients for the hospital attached to the college in those places.”

Mr. Khader said that the Wenlock Hospital was ideal place to start the medical college. “You can post doctors and nurses here and start the college,” he said. Earlier, in the function, Mr. Khader said the medical college would start functioning at the Wenlock in another two years.

Asked on the need of specialised healthcare services for poor patients from Bantwal, Belthangady and Puttur taluks, Mr. Khader said he was proposing a 200-bed referral civil hospital at one of the three taluk headquarters.

Mr. Khader said that the Shri Kshetra Dharmastala Rural Development Project (SKDRDP) would continue to run the two day- care centres for endosulfan victims at Kokkada and Alankaru. The SKDRDP had pointed to the communication gap between them and the district officials and also some technical issues, which they want to be resolved. “I have asked them to place it before the district monitoring committee and get approval,” he said.

Mr. Khader said that the government was yet to decide on rolling out peritoneal dialysis across the State. “It involves a huge cost, we are yet to take a decision,” he said. Nearly 20 patients each in the Government Wenlock Hospital in Mangaluru and the K.C. General Hospital in Bengaluru underwent peritoneal dialysis — a treatment for chronic renal failure cases — for free on a pilot basis last year.