An eye hospital has opened in Salt Lake which promises to offer free consultation to patients till the end of February. Investigations, if any is suggested, would be chargeable.
The hospital belongs to Dr Agarwal’s Group, which is headquartered in Chennai and was founded in 1957. The Salt Lake branch has come up over two floors in Primarc Square, the building on Broadway that houses Story, the new bookstore, on its ground floor.
“My grandparents were eye doctors. We are the third generation in this profession,” said Ashar Agarwal, a vitreoretinal surgeon who is the group’s chief business officer and grandson of Jaiveer Agarwal, who received a Padma Bhushan in 2006.
This is the group’s third hospital in Calcutta after one in Kasba and another at Peerless Hospital, run in partnership with the hospital authorities, since 2016.
The Salt Lake unit was opened on January 25 in the presence of the minister of state for health Chandrima Bhattacharya. “We wanted to come to Salt Lake as it is a very important area of focus for us. We also intend to invest another Rs 100 crore here, by opening more hospitals in the city and modernising existing ones,” said Rahul Agarwal, the chief operating officer of the group. This would be part of the group’s expansion plan of adding 200-300 hospitals across the country over the next couple of years.
The Agarwal’s Group now has about 160 branches across the world, including some in Africa. “In Mumbai alone, we have 20 branches. Sometimes, we even take over brownfield practices and, if required, we downsize their capacity to stick to our standards,” an official said.
The Salt Lake unit is being helmed by Dipangshu Basu Chaudhuri, the head of critical service. “We have doctors covering vitreo-retinal speciality, cornea and refractive services as well as paediatric neuro-opththalmology,” said the cataract surgeon cum glaucoma specialist who grew up in Labony Abasan.
The hospital has three operation theatres (OT) with laminar airflow system with Hepa filters that reduces turbulence and helps keep dust particles at floor level, he added. There is a septic OT, isolated from the other OTs, where surgeries with risk of infection will be performed.
“Our operation theatres are well-equipped, with an anaesthetist in attendance. Inspite of that, if there is need for a back-up, we have a tie-up with Techno India Dama Hospital, which is just around the corner,” Chaudhuri said.
Not all insurance companies are on board yet. Tie-ups, he said, were in place with 10 companies for cashless admission while the application was under process with central and state government entities.
The hospital has the expertise for cornea collection and can send a team to families desirous of eye donation. “We have also applied to start our own eye bank,” Basu Chaudhuri said.
Patients can walk into the hospital from 9am to 7pm. Though the out-patient department rates have not been fixed yet, consultation being free for the month, it is expected to be around Rs 300.