Eatala Rajender inaugurates Stem Cell wing at NIMS

The assessment of Telangana on Covid-19 and the State government’s efforts to combat the infection from the beginning have proved to be right, Health Minister E Rajender said here, on Friday.

Rajender, who inaugurated the Stem Cell Banking, Clinical Research and Regenerative Medicine at Nizam’s Institute of Medical Sciences (NIMS) said, “We have maintained that in the name of plasma therapy and injections, a patient could be fleeced but can’t be saved, and that has proved to be true. We also said that a person with normal symptoms could be treated spending Rs 10,000 and that too proved true,” he said.

In the coming days, we will have to coexist with it the way we are coexisting with dengue, viral fevers, H1N1 and malaria,” the Health Minister said, adding that sustained efforts on part of the Telangana government has helped in containing Covid-19 in the State.

In tune with Chief Minister K Chandrashekhar Rao’s plans to provide an impetus to the health infrastructure and have leading medical institutions on four sides of Hyderabad, two hospitals will come up on the Shamirpet-Medchal



side and Kongara Kalan. Rajender said already two major health facilities have come up on two sides of the city – AIIMS at Bibinagar and TIMS at Gachibowli.

Following the instructions of the Chief Minister to increase the outpatient facilities at NIMS, an OP block and critical care unit would be set up at a cost of Rs 250 crore. Presently the OP wing was catering to 2,500 patients and efforts were on to increase the outpatient care here to 5,000, he said.

With the Stem Cell Banking, Clinical Research and Regenerative Medicine wing opened today, NIMS has emerged as a leading hospital in the country. The stem cell unit will provide treatment of highest standards to blood cancer patients and for the poor, treatment will be free through Arogya Sri.

“Previously, samples used to be sent to New Delhi for testing. Now, NIMS has capabitlity to undertake 10,000 tests every day,” he said.

Some of the services at NIMS which were stopped due to the Covid pandemic would be restored in a week’s time, the Minister added.