The geriatric centre is likely to be established at SCB Medical College and Hospital. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar, April 9: The Odisha government plans to open a regional geriatric centre to facilitate care for the elderly in the region under the National Programme for the Healthcare of the Elderly.

The facility is likely to be established at SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack, the oldest of the three government-run medical hospitals in Odisha. The regional centre will cater to the specialty healthcare needs of the elderly.

India has eight regional geriatric centres so far.

Odisha health minister Prasanna Acharya said: “The state government is going to open five geriatric wards in five district headquarters hospitals. There will be 10 beds for geriatric patients in each of these hospitals. The five districts coming under the National Communicable Diseases programme — Nabarangpur, Koraput, Balangir, Malkangiri and Nuapada — will have the geriatric wards.” In the 12th Five-Year Plan, all 30 districts in the state would have geriatric wards, he said.

Acharya was speaking at the state-level function to celebrate World Health Day. This year’s theme is “ageing and health’’.

The minister stressed that the healthcare delivery mechanism would emphasise more on the elderly population, as within the next five years the number of adults aged 65 and above would outnumber children under five.

The minister also inaugurated an out-patient department for the elderly at Capital Hospital.

According to census data, there are nearly 1 lakh elderly people in the city. A geriatric OPD is already operational at SCB Medical College and Hospital.

On the geriatric OPD at Capital Hospital, the state’s director of health services, Upendra Nath Sahu, said: “It will not only cater to the immediate needs of the elderly, the doctors will treat patients while adopting a holistic approach. If a 65-year-old comes to the hospital to treat a small wound, the doctor at the OPD will also look at his entire health profile and detect possibilities of other ailments and problems. There will be volunteers to assist the elderly to get their tests done.’’

The state government also felicitated two senior healthcare professionals, Baikunthanath Mishra and Santa Ray.

Announcing other healthcare initiatives, health secretary Anu Garg said steps such as distribution of 38 lakh long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLIN) last year would help control malaria and the introduction of a line probe assay (LiPA) machine at SCB this year would help in detecting TB cases faster.

Earlier, TB detection was being done in the state only through the traditional solid cultural sensitivity test, which was taking more than two to three months. The new LiPA test will take less than three days, she said.