Nine state government medical colleges and hospitals are set to get dedicated sprawling state-of-art critical care blocks (CCB) each soon for treatment of patients with severe ailments.
These hospitals are Cooch Behar Medical College Hospital, Jalpaiguri Medical College Hospital (JMCH), Alipurduar Hospital, Jhargram Medical College Hospital, Rampurhat Medical College Hospital, Tamluk Medical College Hospital (TMCH), Midnapore Medical College Hospital (MMCH), Deben Mahato Medical College Hospital in Purulia and Diamond Harbour Medical College Hospital.
Sources at Swasthya Bhawan, state health department headquarters at Salt Lake, said on Tuesday that construction companies have already been issued work orders, following a tender selection process by the West Bengal Medical Services Corporation (WBMSC), sole implementing agency for the projects in the nine hospitals.
Sources said that most of the CCBs would come up in a four-storied building inside respective hospital premises. Two CCBs coming up inside the MMCH and JMCH separately will accommodate 100 patients each in a six-storied building.
Seven other hospitals’ CCBs will have 50 beds each in four-storied buildings.
The CCBs will have all life-support systems like ventilators, MRI units, dialysis units, separate isolation rooms for male and female patients, modular operation theatres (OTs), maternity wards, HDUs and surgical units for brain injury cases, according to WBMSC sources.
Sources also said that with funds of both the central and state governments on a 60:40 ratio, it would cost around Rs 18 crore for a 50-bed CCB, while for a 100-bed block the project cost is Rs 35 crore.
There had been a huge crisis in the number of adequate critical-care beds for treatment of Covid-19-affected patients during the pandemic in West Bengal.
“We will have an adequate number of critical care beds once the CCBs come up in these hospitals. The CCBs are essential for patients, who need separate isolation wards. Each CCB will have a minimum 10 to 20 beds considering its total number of beds,” said an official of the health department.
The demand for dedicated CCBs continued to rise after the pandemic.
Health officials in different districts and Kolkata have expressed concern over the increasing number of patients with severe respiratory distress or kidney ailments desperately searching for beds in critical care units (CCU). They wait for weeks to get a CCU berth even in a teaching hospital. The CCBs will reduce the number of such critical cases waiting for a CCU bed, he added. The Statesman