Critical Covid-19 patients in Odisha now won’t need to be airlifted to places like Calcutta or Hyderabad for the costly but crucial ECMO treatment.

They can now avail of this facility at the SCB Medical College and Hospital, Cuttack, where nine ECMO machines were installed. Chief minister Naveen Patnaik dedicated them to the people of the state on Friday.

ECMO (Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation) machines are used for the treatment of critically ill Covid patients, who can’t survive without continued ventilator support due to severe lung damage. It is also required for the treatment of patients with post-Covid complications. ECMO replaces the functions of the heart and lungs when the lungs cannot provide enough oxygen or get rid of enough carbon dioxide from the body, and when the heart cannot pump enough blood into the body.

With nine ECMO machines the unit at the SCB Medical College and Hospital has become the biggest ECMO unit in eastern India in the government sector. The Odisha government decided to set up the ECMO treatment facility in Odisha after losing some eminent people to Covid-19 such as director Vigilance Debasis Panigrahi and eminent educationist and advisor of Odisha Adarsha Vidyalaya Sangathan, Bijay Kumar Sahoo. Both had to be airlifted outside the state in critical condition for ECMO treatment but still succumbed to the disease.

Dedicating the ECMO machines to the state at the SCB Medical College, Naveen said, “The ECMO treatment is very costly. But the state will provide the treatment free of cost to the patients. Patients will not have to pay a single pie.” Naveen also visited the ECMO units and doctors explained to him how it worked.

He also warned people not to be casual while adhering to the Covid guidelines. “The pandemic is yet to be over. All need to remain cautious for the impending third wave.”

Naveen also said that experts have warned about the high vulnerability of children to the disease during the third wave.

Additional chief secretary (Health) P.K. Mohapatra told The Telegraph, “ECMO treatment is very costly. We have information about private hospitals charging Rs 1 lakh per day for this treatment. But here patients will get treatment free of cost. We have trained our people to run the ECMO machines. On Saturday, five critically ill patients will be admitted to SCB for ECMO treatment.”

Sources said the patient at least needs to spend around Rs 10 lakh for this treatment.

The AIIMs Bhubaneswar has also set up two ECMO machines to cater to the needs of critical patients.

Anticipating a third wave of Covid-19, the state government has approved an emergency Covid response plan. It has asked the district collectors to set up dedicated pediatric care units at different public health care facilities and establish 50-bedded hospitals at selected health care units. “Under the Emergency Response and Health System Preparedness Package (Phase 11), the state focuses on preparing to meet the situation arising out of the Covid emergency and strengthening the public health system for epidemic preparedness,” said officials. The state had already experienced a severe second wave of Covid-19.

Collectors have been instructed to ensure availability of antigen and RTPCR test kits and to establish RT-PCR labs and procure essential drugs and stock them in the different medical hospitals.

However, high Covid-19 death rate in Odisha remains a cause of concern for the state government even though the number of positive cases are on the decline. The state recorded 69 more deaths due to the pandemic in the last 24 hours taking the total number of deaths in the state to 7,697

However, social activists have alleged that there was a huge mismatch between the death figures cited by the government and actual casualties during the last one year.