NRS Med College & Hosp to get full-fledged gastroenterology dept

Kolkata: A 20-bed gastroenterology unit at NRS Medical College and Hospital, which is currently under the medicine department, will soon be upgraded to a full-fledged department. A proposal has been sent to Swasthya Bhawan in this regard.

NRS Medical College and Hospital, situated near Sealdah railway station, caters to a huge number of patients who come mostly from the northern parts of the city and adjoining districts.

As there is no dedicated gastroenterology department at NRS Medical College, the patients are often referred to other hospitals.

Patients requiring specialised treatment under the discipline of gastroenterology are eventually shifted to SSKM Hospital, Calcutta Medical College and Hospital and even to RG Kar Medical College.

There is currently one specialised doctor in the gastroenterology department of the hospital. As the NRS Medical College is one of the oldest medical colleges in the city there is a huge rush of patients, many of whom require gastro treatment.

The NRS Medical College and Hospital has recently prepared a proposal so that the current gastroenterology unit is upgraded to a full-fledged department with adequate infrastructure and more doctors in this particular discipline.

The proposal has been under the consideration of the state Health department.

In another development, the Calcutta Medical College and Hospital (CMCH) came up with a host of new departments which include surgical oncology, radiotherapy, nuclear medicine, oncopathology, pediatric medicine and nuclear medicine departments. The bed strength is going up at the Cardiology department. Emergency medicine department has been started at the CMCH.

Steps have been taken to revamp the services in the neuromedicine, neurosurgery, nephrology and urology departments. The infrastructure at the PICU is getting a boost and a new pediatric medicine department will soon be set up. It may be mentioned here that a dedicated geriatric department with an initial capacity of 30 beds has been introduced at the fifth floor of NCB Bhavan of the CMCH. An outpatient department (OPD) for geriatric has also been opened at the hospital.