Bhubaneswar: The public works department, in consultation with the health and family welfare department, has come up with a concept plan to upgrade the existing district headquarters hospital to a medical college before June.

Officials of both the departments visited the hospital in Puri, inspected the proposed site and came up with a report along with a set of activities to be taken up on war footing for the construction of the medical college and hospital.

Accordingly, authorities will now take up a construction and conversion activities.

To begin with, the existing outpatient department will be merged with the causality and upgraded to a 30-bed ward. Besides, the obstetric and gynaecology department will be moved to the new 50-bed mother-and-child care building where a central oxygen plant will also be set up for supply to various wards.

The ophthalmology unit will be upgraded and will house faculty rooms, nursing rooms, stores, pantry and a library-cum-reading room among others. A 1,500sqft plot adjacent to the ophthalmology building will also be utilised for the purpose.

"We have been upgrading the infrastructure on the hospital premises for quite some time. However, there is the need of more quality infrastructure for converting the hospital into a medical college. We have analysed the situation and come up with the activities to be taken up for the purpose," said an official of works department.

In the process, the authorities will also upgrade the surgery unit, which presently has 16 general rooms. This portion of the hospital will be converted into a full-fledged ward. The infrastructure at the medicine unit will also be redeveloped and house allied wards of pulmonary medicine, psychiatry and dermatology.