Goa Health Minister Vishwajit Rane on December 4 said the government would soon set up an infertility treatment facility at the state-run Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMCH).

Around 20 per cent women in the state face problems of infertility, he said, noting that many of them require advanced and expensive medical treatments for it costing between Rs 5 lakh to Rs 9 lakh. To help such women, an Intrauterin Insemination (IUI) facility will be set up at the GMCH within a month and an In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) unit will be introduced at the hospital in the next six months, Rane told reporters here.

The state government was working to provide all the infrastructure required to set up the IUI facility at the GMCH, as per guidelines of the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), he said. The state government will tie-up with renowned infertility treatment specialist Dr Nandita Palshetkar (based in Mumbai) and the Federation of Obstertrics and Gynaecological Society of India (FOGSI) for the facility, the minister said.

"Dr Palshetkar has agreed to assist GMCH till we set up the facility," he said. The state government is also in the process of setting up a 'mother and child' block at GMCH, which would be integrated with the hospital's gynaecology department, he added.