Cuttack, July 6: A fumigation operation, necessitated by entry of sewage into the central intensive care unit (CICU) of SCB Medical College and Hospital, will keep the unit closed till July 10.

Along with restrictions on new admissions at the 10-bed CICU, a process has also started today to move its patients to other intensive care units (ICU) at medicine, cardiology, surgery and neurosurgery departments of the hospital.

A hospital official said the process of shifting patients from the CICU to other ICUs was likely to be completed by tonight.

The CICU needed fumigation urgently as sewer water had already flooded the unit several times during this monsoon because of a suspected seepage, hospital sources said.

In what may be considered as a serious threat to the patients admitted to the unit at the state’s premier government-run hospital, sources said a number of resistant organisms had been found inside the CICU, which generate mainly because of lack of proper measures to check entry of sewage into it.

Wastewater is allegedly soaking through the walls of the CICU from the side of the telemedicine unit because of a faulty drainage system.

“We suspect that soaking of sewage inside the CICU could be one of the reasons behind spreading of infections inside the unit,” said CICU in-charge Ramesh Samantray.

A number of patients admitted to the super-speciality unit and their attendants have already expressed the fear of contracting infections because of delay in carrying out sterilisation and fumigation procedures in the unit.