Need for institute of virology raised at session on Manipal-Konaje Knowledge and Health Corridor

Manglore Today News Network

Mangaluru, Feb 01, 2020:   The State’s coastal region requires an institute of virology on a par with the National Institute of Virology in Pune, Padmaja Udaya Kumar, Vice-Dean, Father Muller Medical College, said on Friday.

Speaking at a brainstorming session organised by Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation (KUIDFC) on the proposed Manipal-Konaje Knowledge and Health Corridor, she said that an institute on virology would also help in medical sector research. Dr. Padmaja who is also professor and head of the Department of Pharmacology at the same medical college, said that every medical college in the region can adopt one village each to take care of the health needs of its people.

M. Venkatraya Prabhu, Dean, Kasturba Medical College, Mangaluru, said the late T.M.A. Pai had started the first self-financing medical college — Kasturba Medical College in Manipal — in the private sector in the region in 1953. He was a pioneer who started a public-private partnership in the education and health sector in the region by utilising the clinical services of Government Wenlock Hospital and Government Lady Goschen Hospital in Mangaluru for the KMC. The region has grown a lot, both in the education and health sectors, since then.

G.S. Chandrashekar, medical director, Aadarsha Hospital, Udupi, said there was a need to bring down the cost of medicines and diagnostic equipment to reduce treatment costs.

In her introductory remarks, Charulata Somal, MD of KUIDFC, said the State government had announced the Manipal-Konaje Knowledge and Health Corridor in its 2019-20 budget. The demand for it came from the people of the region, which already has a competitive advantage in the two sectors. “KUIDFC is facilitating to further strengthen them in consultation with the stakeholders of the region,” she said, adding that a vision report would be prepared in six months through the consultant Price Waterhouse Coopers.

“We will identify the tangible and more intangible inherent strengths of this region and how to build on that strength,” she said.

Ms. Somal said that once the vision is ready, the KUIDFC would examine whether any intervention from the government was required to promote the Manipal-Konaje Knowledge and Health Corridor. “Can we do something to bring in private investment, what sort of investment is needed, whether it should be through public-private partnership... it will be discussed at the government level,” she said.

Kota Srinivas Poojary, Minister in charge of Dakshina Kannada, U.T. Khader, D. Vedavyasa Kamath, Y. Bharat Shetty, MLAs, Sindu B. Rupesh, Deputy Commissioner, took part in the session.

Courtesy:The Hindu