National Centre of Ageing and Hospital to be inaugurated on Feb 14

CHENNAI: After a long wait, the National Centre of Ageing and Hospital is all set to be inaugurated on Wednesday. The health minister Ma Subramanian announced that the hospital will be a specialised center to provide all kind of medical care and treatment for elderly.

There are only two exclusive elderly care facilities in the country, including the Department of Geriatric Medicine at AIIMS Delhi and the National Centre of Ageing and Hospital in Guindy. The hospital which is located in the King Institute premises has been renovated and the appointment of the staff has also been done.

After being initially launched as the Institute of Ageing, the hospital was converted as the COVID Care Centre during the pandemic to attend to the rising number of cases of COVID-19. The building was planned to be changed back to the Institute of Ageing after the cases came down and the Kalaignar Centenary Government Hospital was inaugurated.

In May 2023, health minister had stated that the quality of the hospital structure was not good and it might be unsafe for patients as several parts of the hospital were damaged. As the dedicated COVID-19 facility could not be converted back into a geriatric hospital, the rectification works were done and the hospital is now ready to serve the public. The procurement of the necessary equipment has also been made to ensure that all facilities are available for the elderly.

The state health department officials say that the hospital will have specialists across various departments including neurology, orthopaedics, cardiology, general medicine, palliative care and others. A total of 256 additional posts for medical professionals were also created for the National Center of Ageing in the King Institute of Preventive Medicine and Research Centre under the National Programme for the Healthcare of the Elderly.