K'taka govt, Azim Premji Foundation to establish multi-speciality hospital in Bengaluru

Bengaluru, Jan 17 (PTI) The Karnataka government and Azim Premji Foundation entered into a partnership on Saturday to establish a multi-speciality hospital in Bengaluru.

According to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, the Foundation has set a target of spending Rs 4,000 crore in five years on the hospital.

The agreement was signed between the Department of Medical Education and the Azim Premji Foundation for the construction and management of a thousand-bed charitable super specialty and human multi-organ transplant hospital, in the presence of Siddaramaiah.

Medical Education Minister Sharan Prakash Patil, Foundation Chief Executive Officer Anurag Behar and other dignitaries were present at the event.

The hospital will be developed as a 1,000-bed multi-speciality hospital, providing high-quality care to vulnerable and underserved populations. Also, 75 per cent of the beds will be offered at zero cost to patients, while the remaining beds will be priced at rates comparable to government tertiary hospitals, the Medical Education Minister's office said in a release.

The hospital will offer multiple specialities, with a particular focus on organ transplantation, and will also contribute to medical education and research, it said.

The initiative is intended to complement and strengthen the city's public health system by expanding access to advanced tertiary care, it added.

The Foundation will bear the entire capital and operating expenditure of the hospital. This will be established on government-owned land. The hospital will be operated by a separate not-for-profit entity set up by the Azim Premji Foundation. The governing board of the hospital will have government representation.

The hospital is expected to become fully operational within five years of the land being leased and necessary approvals being granted. All activities of the hospital will be in line with its public-interest mandate, it added.

Siddaramaiah said, for the proposed hospital, the government has agreed to provide 10 acres of land on lease basis for a period of 99 years on the premises of Rajiv Gandhi Chest Diseases Hospital.

The government is grateful to billionaire Azim Premji for this great work. It is great that he has come forward to carry out this work free of cost, he said.

Noting that the Azim Premji Foundation has been serving in the field of education and health on a large scale for the last 25 years, Siddaramaiah said, while it was teachers training in 2021, in 2024 it has contributed Rs 1.5 crore for a programme to provide eggs four days a week to students from LKG to class X.

The chief minister thanked Azim Premji for 30,000 scholarships annually to those who study in government colleges under the Deepika Scholarship, the CMO said, quoting Siddaramaiah. PTI KSU KH