Howrah District Hospital, for the first time since its inception, is set to launch two major units for psychiatric and burns patients.

Funded by the public works department and a sanctioned sum of Rs 10 lakh from the local area development fund of a Howrah MLA, both wards will be equipped with modern medical equipment.

The fully air-conditioned burns unit will have 30 beds — 20 for women and 10 for men. There will be 21 staff members, including six sweepers, six Group-D workers, eight nurses and a surgeon.

Already installed in the SN Das block of the hospital are a cardiac monitor, pulse oxy-meter and a Fowler’s bed. “We are waiting for a sanction of the added staff for the ward,”said hospital superintendent H.K. Chanda.

Psychiatric patients were previously treated at the outdoor division of the hospital but the serious cases were referred to other mental hospitals with in-house facilities.

The new unit will have a 20-bedded ward, equally distributed among male and female patients, with a staff strength of 21, comprising six sweepers, six Group-D workers, eight nurses and a psychiatrist.

Superintendent Chanda said the hospital has to turn down a majority of the eight to 10 patients who come daily with serious burn injuries for lack of infrastructure.

“In a month, we have to refuse about 250 burns cases and 60 psychiatric patients,” he added. Now, the serious psychiatric patients will be accommodated in the specially-constructed cell of the new unit.