THIRD COVID HOSPITAL WITH SOA ASSISTANCE OPENS AT TALCHER

Bhubaneswar, April 20: The Institute of Medical Sciences and SUM Hospital, faculty of medicine of the SOA Deemed to be University, on Monday signed a tripartite agreement with the Odisha government and the public sector Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) to set up a 156-bed Covid Hospital at Talcher in Angul district.

This is the third Covid Hospital being set up in the state with the assistance of the IMS and SUM Hospital within the last fortnight.

A 525-bed stand-alone Covid Hospital, the largest such facility in the state, was established in the SOA campus here on April 6 last while a similar facility with 110 beds was set up at Chhata near Kendrapara subsequently.
The tripartite agreement was signed by the Medical Superintendent of IMS and SUM Hospital Dr. Pusparaj Samantasinhar, Collector and District Magistrate of Angul, Mr. Manoj Kumar Mohanty and General Manager of MCL, Mr. N.G.Brahmapurkar. The hospital will have 150 beds besides an ICU with six beds. MCL will be providing support to the hospital while doctors, nurses and paramedical personnel from IMS and SUM Hospital will run the facility.

The new hospital at Talcher was inaugurated through a video conference in which Odisha Chief Minister Mr. Naveen Patnaik, Union minister for Petroleum, Natural Gas and Steel, Mr. Dharmendra Pradhan, Union minister for Coal, Mines and Parliamentary Affairs, Mr. Prahlad Joshi, Odisha’s health and family welfare minister Mr. Naba Das, state chief secretary Mr. Asit Kumar Tripathy, Development Commissioner Mr. Suresh Kumar Mohapatra, Secretary to Chief Minister (5T), Mr. V.K.Pandian, state’s chief spokesman on Covid-19 Mr. Subroto Bagchi and senior officials took part.

The Chief Minister thanked the doctors and medical staff who had taken up the responsibility to treat Covid-19 patients while expressing his gratitude to MCL for supporting the cause. He appreciated SOA’s decision to take up the responsibility and setting up the facility.

Speaking on the occasion, chief secretary Mr. Tripathy said till now 25 Covid Hospitals with more than 5000 beds had been set up in 22 districts of Odisha with the addition of 825 beds on Monday. Besides the MCL backed Covid Hospital at Talcher, four other such hospitals had started functioning at Paradip, Nabarangpur, Bargarh and Sundargarh during the day set up with the support of public sector undertakings.

While the Covid Hospital at Bargarh had been supported by public sector Indian Oil Corporation Limited (IOCL), the hospitals at Nabarangpur, Sundargarh and Paradip were backed by National Aluminium Co Ltd (Nalco), National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) and Paradip Port Trust (PPT) respectively.

Mr. Pradhan said that as many as 682 Covid Hospitals had been set up in the country till now with Odisha taking the lead. He, however, expressed the hope that none of these hospitals would receive any patient over the next six months. But these facilities should continue for the next one year till the Covid-19 threat was stamped out from the world.

Vice-Chancellor of SOA Prof. Ashok Kumar Mahapatra, SOA Director Prof. Manas Kumar Mallick, Dean (Students Welfare), Dr. Jyoti Ranjan Das, senior doctors at IMS and SUM Hospital Dr. Iswar Behera and Dr. B.K.Pati, among others, were present at Talcher.