A patient being brought out of an ambulance at a govt hospital in Bhubaneswar. Picture by Ashwinee Pati

Bhubaneswar, June 13: After introduction of the dial 108 ambulance service, the inflow of emergency patients has gone up in the government-run referral health care centres, prompting the government to strengthen casualty wards in 32 major hospitals across the state.

“The inflow of patients to the casualty ward of SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack has gone up by 20 to 30 per cent after introduction of 108 ambulance service in the state. On an average, 250 emergency patients are admitted in the hospital every day,” said health minister Atanu Sabyasachi Nayak.

Nayak added that there had also been a rise in the inflow of emergency patients in other government-run referral hospitals across the state.

The minister said that out of 22,000 calls received by 108 ambulances, 17,000 calls were related to emergency cases.

Under the 108 ambulance service norms, the response time for ambulance is 20 minutes after the receipt of the call for urban areas and 35 minutes for rural areas.

“The government is, therefore, planning to upgrade the casualty ward and trauma care centres in 30 district headquarter hospitals, Capital Hospital in Bhubaneswar and Ispat General Hospital in Rourkela at an estimated cost of Rs 62 crore. The proposal has already been approved by the planning and co-ordination department and it will be placed before finance department for its nod,” said the minister.

BJD MLA Ranendra Pratap Swain and others demanded increase in the number of beds and upgrade of other facilities at the casualty ward of the SCB Medical College and Hospital, which has only 37 beds.

Besides, CT scan, X-ray and ultrasound test facilities should be available at the casualty ward round-the-clock as serious accident patients with head and multiple injuries often come to the hospital in the night, he said.

The minister said two assistant professors were deployed at the casualty ward and there was also plan to appoint medical officers to attend to emergency cases.

Niali MLA Pramod Malick, who is also a doctor, suggested to post senior doctors in the rank of chief district medical officers and set up a special intensive care unit at the casualty ward for emergency patients.

The health minister said plans were afoot to upgrade infrastructure at SCB, MKCG and VSS hospitals. A master plan with a project cost of Rs 500 crore had also been prepared for this purpose. Steps had also been initiated to upgrade trauma care centres at four places in the state, including Balasore.

Nayak, however, admitted the problem of lack of doctors in the government medical colleges and hospitals. He said there was a requirement of 320 assistant professors at SCB alone. Recruitment of assistant professors was conducted last year. But still, there is vacancy of 97 assistant professors there, he said.