Nawaloka Hospitals which has invested a total of Rs.1.5 billion in expanding one of the leading private healthcare facilities in Colombo will open their new complex later this month, the company announced at a news conference last week.

The company’s Chairman, Deshamanya H.K. Dharmadasa said that as a result of this expansion, the Nawaloka Hospital will have a total floor area of 300,000 sq. ft. with 80,000 sq. ft. added through the new complex.

"This will make us the single largest private hospital complex in the country," he said.

As a result of the expansion, the hospital’s bed strength will rise to 400 and a total of 2,000 staff will be working there.

"Our nurse to patient ratio is currently 1 to 4 in the wards and 1 to 1 in the ICUs, while we will now have a total of 85 consultation rooms and 200 consultants visiting the hospital on a daily basis," Chandrasena said announcing that several new doctors in all specialities will be visiting the hospital.

Construction of the new eight-floor building, each floor comprising 10,000 sq. ft., began in September last year.

"One floor will be dedicated to channeling/consultations and the specialty areas will be organized so that all consultants specializing in one particular field of medicine will be together," said Director/General Manager of Nawaloka Hospitals, Professor Lal Chandrasena.

The new complex will house amongst other facilities, a well equipped emergency treatment unit, an OPD laboratory, pharmacy, consultation rooms, café, ATMs, a maternity department complete with surgical theatre, delivery room as well as private delivery rooms and an Out Bound Unit for patients with post pregnancy defects, a neo natal unit, a MICU (Medical Intensive Care Unit) with the latest facilities, a Sleep Lab (snoring monitoring facility), dialysis unit, isolation room, 14 ultra modern surgical theatres, a modern fertility centre, nephrology unit, as well as a series of villas and suites to cater to the more fastidious patients.

"Two operating theatres will be dedicated for the needs of out patients while two more will be dedicated for obstetrics and gynecology," Chandrasena said. All the ICUs including the medical, surgical, coronary and the angiography laboratory will be expanded and housed on the second floor along with relevant staff so that attention and care would be even more prompt and easier.

Dharmadasa said that they had invested an additional Rs 60 million to purchase equipment including monitors for the ICUs which would help the nurses monitor the patient’s condition from a central location.

"Annually we invest around Rs 200 million on technology alone and we have many firsts to our credit including being the first to introduce the Philips FD 10- Angiography system with state of the art technology. In addition we were also the first to introduce a Comprehensive Polysomnography System as well as the first to introduce a state of the art pulmonary testing facility," Chandrasena noted.

He explained that the most expensive item in the healthcare industry was the cost of introducing new equipment.

"The modern world is such that every day there is new technology coming into the industry, which makes even new equipment obsolete, however in order to keep your service up to date, it is essential to provide the latest technology regardless of the cost".

Another unique feature of the new complex will be the super luxury, luxury and semi luxury suites and villas that will be on offer which have been designed by a panel of internationally recognized architects and consultants who specialize in medical requirements, the new briefing was told.

"We have seen a growth in this area - indeed it can be termed medical tourism as we hope to attract foreign patents from the region as well - where people are demanding more facilities and amenities when undergoing treatment, " Chandrasena said.

This will ensure that patients would not be confined to a room but would have ample space while each and every villa and suite will have a water front view as well as a bird’s eye view of Colombo city.

"Other facilities such as internet connections will also be on offer, all of which will contribute towards making the patients stay at Nawaloka Hospitals a pleasurable as well as recuperative experience," he said.

The new complex will also address the problem of parking. "Presently we have two parking blocks which are owned by us and once the new complex is up and running we hope to commence construction of a multi-storey car park at an additional cost of Rs 50 million," Dharmadasa said.