You can relish your days in General hospital

KOCHI: For the first time in the country, a government hospital is going to provide balanced and nutritional food free-of-cost to its inmates, prepared from its own well-equipped kitchen. The Ernakulam General Hospital is all equipped with a kitchen to meet the 500-odd inpatients. Three meals a day will be provided to the inpatients of the hospital at their bedsides, which is now  available only at private hospitals.  The Ernakulam General Hospital has become the first government hospital in the country to provide free meals to its inpatients. “Though food is provided to inpatients at G B Pant Hospital and the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences at their bedsides, it is not free. But here we give free food,” Hospital Superintendent Dr M I Junaid Rahman told Express. “The inpatients would be provided ovo-vegetarian food, which consists of a balanced and nutritional diet that caters to different patients,” NRHM Consultant Nutritionist Mumtaz Khalid Ismail said. Idli, dosa, upuma, puttu and chappati are included in the breakfast menu. The lunch is a full course meal that consists of vegetables, rice and butter milk. Tea and biscuit will be served for tea. And the dinner menu is chappati with egg curry and vegetable kuruma. Oottupura, as the kitchen is fondly called, was a concept that came to the mind of Dr Rahman after looking at the food trolleys at the private hospitals. “If the private hospitals can do it, why cannot we? This was the thought that led to the concept of Oottupura,” he said.Though the proposal was submitted to the government a year ago nothing happened, Dr Rahman said. “After  P I Sheik Parith assumed charge as District Collector, the concept got fresh life. We thought of collecting funds locally,” he said. P Rajeev MP provided `15 Lakh from the MP Fund, Kochi Refineries Ltd gave `10 lakh and the Hospital Development Society provided `5 lakh to construct the kitchen. “An expense of `20,000 is expected daily to provide food to the inpatients. Voluntary organisations have already come up in support,” Dr Rahman said. For the future, the superintendent looks forward to having a list of individuals and others who could sponsor food for 365 days. The Brothers of Holy Charity has agreed to voluntarily prepare the food. Walking around the kitchen, Mumtaz explained that the chappati maker could make 1,000 chappatis per hour. The rice boiler could cook 50 kg of rice, which is enough for about 500-odd inpatients. The idli steamer could make 100 pieces of idli. About 80 per cent of normal food and 20 per cent of therapeutic food will be provided to the inpatients.  Once the kitchen becomes operational, the inpatients would not be served food brought from outside,” she said .   Dr Rahman said the new kitchen was awaiting inauguration. “The availability of the Health Minister and others has to be finalised. And in case the inauguration is delayed, we would start a trial run soon,” Dr Rahman said.