The long-awaited nephrology department of Rajendra Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) is likely to get operational within 15-20 days.

Nephrologist Dr Pragya Ghosh Pant, who joined the institute on Monday after leaving her job at a private hospital in the city, told The Telegraph that preparations to make the department functional had already been started.

“We have to depute nurses and technicians besides installing the machines and equipment. This is a time-consuming process. I am hoping that the department will become operational in 15-20 days. Once it happens, we will be able to offer three-day OPD (outpatient department) services besides dialysis and other facilities. Transplants will start later,” Dr Pant said.

In the mean time, Pant said, she would advise departments that needed her opinion on any medical complications related to nephrology.

“Earlier, getting an opinion was difficult in case a patient admitted to some other department developed kidney problems. Now, with my presence, doctors of other department might refer the patients to me,” she said.

A RIMS insider said Dr Pant’s salary would be much lower than what she used to get at the private hospital.

On what motivated her to join RIMS on a lower pay, Pant said: “Job satisfaction and opportunity to use knowledge for the poor in a better way.”

Pant, a doctor of medicine in nephrology from Banaras Hindu University, has always been proactive in serving the poor since her arrival to Ranchi in 2015 with her husband Dr Jayant Kumar Ghosh, 40, a doctor of medicine in gastroenterology from the same institute.

Pant, who did her schooling from Hardiwar, had set up a clinic on the ground floor of a three-storey building near her husband’s ancestral home on Line Tank Road for the poor.

Former Assembly Speaker Inder Singh Namdhari had inaugurated the clinic, which was spread over 3,000 square feet.

Even during her stint at the private hospital, Pant was known for her spirit of service.