Nawaloka Hospital says big draw for diagnostic services

Wednesday, 17 April 2013 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

Nawaloka Hospital provides medical investigation services to over 1,000 people every day. A large number of these take the form of out-patient services, and cover a wide range of testing and screening facilities.

Whether as a preventive measure or to facilitate treatment, diagnosis forms the cornerstone of every procedure. For this reason, patrons visit the Nawaloka Hospital daily to access diagnostic services for everything from routine tests for blood sugar and cholesterol, lipid profiles, CT scans and angiograms, to the more complex tests associated with dengue, liver and renal function, nuclear medicine, etc.

In addition, depending on the requirement of each individual, examinations such as Electro Myography (EMG), endoscopy, DEXA bone scans and MRI scans, ultra sound and echo scans, to name just a few, are also made available on a 24-hours-a-day basis.

Taking into consideration the high degree of accuracy and greater efficiency required when offering investigative medical services, the Nawaloka Hospital frequently upgrades its diagnostic facilities to the next generation of medical equipment.

In this regard, the Nawaloka Hospital has also been responsible for several ‘firsts’ in terms of medical technology for Sri Lanka; the first single balloon enteroscope, the first 3 TESLA MRI scanner, etc. This is in addition to new technologies that aided in new procedures being offered, such as Doppler-guided haemorrhoid artery ligation and rectal anal repair and live donor liver transplants. Aside from this, there have also been recent radiology upgrades which include the addition of full digital imaging functionality via digital X-ray units and four-dimensional (4D) digital ultrasound scanners.

Other important milestones for the hospital have been its completion of 10,000 cardiac surgeries, between 1994 and 2013, as well as its milestone of 30,000 angiograms completed during the same period.

In terms of the future, the Nawaloka Hospital will continue to upgrade its diagnostic technology to keep up with the very best of global developments in the field of medicine. Patients will be given the opportunity to reap the benefits of advancements in every area of diagnostics in the coming years, with the hospital’s immediate plans encompassing the upgrading of testing methods related to laboratory investigation, biochemistry, genetics, molecular biology and drug assays testing amongst others.

With more than 400 beds and 600 visiting medical consultants, Nawaloka Hospital is the largest local private hospital in a single location, which is also the country’s first fully-fledged private healthcare institution, opened in 1985 with only 100 beds. The hospital was responsible for the well-being of over 1.5 million patients in total during the 2011/2012 period, during which it also carried out close to 15,000 surgeries.