Women of Dhanbad, including Covid-affected, expecting mothers, will now get a separate, exclusive treatment facility, the process for which has been initiated by the district administration at the SSLNT Women’s hospital on Telephone Exchange Road.

The facility is likely to be made operational in a day or two.

Deputy commissioner Uma Shankar Singh said that that at present, treatment of Covid patients is being carried out at three different centers including the 100-bed Dedicated Covid Hospital, in Jagjivan Nagar Dhanbad, the 100-bed Dedicated Covid Health Centre at PMCH and the 25-bed Tata Central Hospital Jamadobad-based centers.

Being situated in the heart of the town, the hospital, which was also being used as a quarantine centre, will be an ideal location for the treatment of Covid infected ladies, especially pregnant women.

Established in 1962 by the Sri Sri Lakshmi Narayan Trust as a private hospital, SSLNT hospital was taken over by the state government in the early 1970s as part of the Patliputra Medical College and Hospital (PMCH), from where the full-fledged Gynaecology and Ophthalmology department used to function.

The 140-bed hospital building comprising of five big halls, six doctors chambers, an operation theatre and half a dozen wards was one of the important gynaecological and ophthalmological centres for many years.

However, due to retirement of doctors and the establishment of a new campus at Saraidhela, the hospital faced neglect and rendered functionless after 2006.

Jharkhand chief minister Raghubar Das along with health secretary K Vidyasagar inspected the hospital in 2015 after his divisional-level pre-budget consultation programme held at Dhanbad, during which he instructed officials to restart the emergency services in the hospital by January 2016.

OPD facilities started in 2017.