New intensive care unit at Balasore hospital. Telegraph picture

Balasore, May 2: A much-awaited special care unit has finally been operational at the district headquarter hospital here.

Though the special health care unit was set up at the district headquarter hospital four years ago at a cost of around Rs 40lakh with the money made available by industrial houses of the district, the same was lying defunct due to want of doctors and paramedical staff.

“We would be manning the unit with our existing staff. There would be four specialists headed by a cardiologist for managing the dedicated unit,” said chief district medical officer (CMDO) Iqbal Ahmed.

“Three more beds will be included in the existing three-bed unit and more equipment would be procured subsequently,” he said.Patients from around the Bengal-Orissa border and Balasore district depend on this hospital.

“Since we didn’t have adequate staff to man the unit and there was financial constraint to engage private doctors, the unit could not be run although it was ready long since. The unit was opened after the CDMO agreed to spare four doctors and other staff,” said district collector A.B. Ota.

“We would try to engage specialists out of National Rural Health Mission aid and procure other required equipment. We are also planning to send our doctors for training to different specialised hospitals equipped with intensive care units,” he added.

“We have prepared a list of equipment required to strengthen the emergency care facilities,” said hospital manager Sriram Mohanty.

“We had several rounds of talks with the district administration over the running of the special care unit,” said Himanu Das, a member of Peripheral Development Society.

Industrial houses of the district including Emami Paper Mills and Birla Tyres had contributed for the special care unit.