A patient waits for medical attention outside RG Kar Medical College and Hospital. A Telegraph picture

The government has decided to set up a state-of-the-art trauma care centre at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital, Asim Dasgupta, the state finance minister, announced on Wednesday.

“Funded by the state government, the centre will provide 24-hour trauma care services with specialised teams of doctors and paramedics. The centre will provide relief from the moment a patient is brought in,” Dasgupta said at Writers’ Buildings. The centre would have general, orthopaedic, neuro and plastic surgery facilities, he added.

An official at the hospital said a design for the trauma care centre, prepared by the PWD’s architecture department, has already been sent to the authorities for approval. The project would cost at least Rs 20 crore, he added.

“The centre would be housed in an eight-storeyed building to be built on the main campus. The basement will have a linear accelerator for a radiotherapy unit, for which we need approval from the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC). Though the radiotherapy wing is not linked to trauma care, the centre will have to wait for the BARC’s nod because it would be set up in the same building. We expect the approval to come within a few weeks,” Utpal Dutta, the RG Kar Medical College principal, said.

On Wednesday Metro had reported on the lack of trauma care facilities in the city. No state-run hospital has a trauma care unit yet, though health minister Surjya Kanta Mishra had promised one at SSKM long ago.

“The government has altered the plan slightly. The trauma care centre would be set up at Medical College and Hospital instead of SSKM, and would be funded by the Centre. Construction should begin in 2009,” Sanchita Biswas, the state director of health services, said.