The cardiac catheterisation lab (cath lab) at the Government General Hospital, Kozhikode, popularly known as Beach Hospital, is likely to resume functioning next week with the authorities promising to release the dues to medical device distributors in the coming days.
A sum of ₹2 crore has been arranged by Thottathil Raveendran, MLA. The cath lab suspended operations from June 14 after distributors of medical devices such as stents stopped their supply citing payment default. Procedures such as angiogram are not being conducted, and a large number of patients have been suffering because of this. A patient who reached the hospital seeking treatment for chest pain collapsed recently and had to be shifted to the Government Medical College Hospital. The authorities are now hoping that the functioning of the cath lab can be resumed from Monday.
The stent distributors, meanwhile, alleged that the authorities were deliberately delaying payment though funds were cleared last Saturday. The payment since last September, which will be around ₹3 crore, is due. Now, the authorities have promised to clear the dues till February. The distributors said on Thursday that they would resume supply on Monday only if the payments were cleared by Saturday.