State to set up units for immediate medical relief in accident-prone areas
Kolkata: The Bengal government is making elaborate plans to identify areas in each district, which are accident-prone, and the state health department is about to set up special units to ensure that accident victims get immediate treatment at the district and sub-divisional hospitals.
After being prodded by Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, the state health department took initiatives to set up trauma care centres in various medical colleges and hospitals across the state. Trauma care centres have already come up at RG Kar Medical College and Hospital and the SSKM Hospital. Health units have been set up in the district hospitals to provide immediate treatment to accident victims.
Banerjee during her administrative meetings in the districts laid stress on the identification of accident prone areas in districts. She also highlighted the importance of providing training to roadside stall owners in the accident prone areas to deal with crisis and how accident victims could be transported to a nearby hospital in minimum time.
The Mamata-led government has set up 44 critical care units in the state where there was none in 2011. According to a senior health department official, if the government combines High Dependency Units (HDU) with the CCU, the figure stands at 69.
District hospitals across the state have seen a major facelift with infrastructure for digital X rays, CT scan, dialysis, MRI facilities being introduced in a number of hospitals. The number of referral cases from district hospitals to the city hospitals has also gone down, said an official.
The government has come up with 42 super-speciality hospitals across the state and the number of doctors in state-run hospitals has gone up two times in comparison to what the figure stood in 2011.
The number of doctors in state hospitals was 4,500 in 2011 which has gone up to 10,900. The number of nurses has also witnessed a sharp jump from 37,366 to 52,820 in 2019.
The budget allocation in the health sector in Bengal has gone up from Rs 682 crore in 2011 to Rs 9,552.70 crore in the current fiscal clearly indicating the emphasis given by the state government to this sector.
