kolkata: As a part of its overall development in the critical care infrastructure in various district hospitals, the state health department has started the construction of a 100-bedded critical care unit (CCU) at Howrah District Hospital.
An advanced integrated public health laboratory (IPHL) will also come up at this hospital.
The CCU will be set up on the premises of the hospital situated opposite Howrah Zilla Parishad.
State government has allotted a fund of Rs 46 crore for the construction of the CCU and IPHL.
State Health Secretary Narayan Swaroop Nigam and Director of Health Services (DHS) Dr Ajay Chakraborty have recently visited the Howrah District Hospital to assess the progress of the ongoing projects.
Health officials are also examining a proposal of setting up a separate unit for neonatal care inside the proposed CCU.
It may be mentioned here that critical care units in various district hospitals are being given a facelift.
The State Health department is preparing a standard model for all the proposed 'hybrid CCUs', which will come up at 79 government hospitals across Bengal to further boost up infrastructure in critical care.
The standard model, which will be prepared by the department, will eventually be followed by all the hospitals while setting up the 'hybrid CCU', which is a specially-designed critical care unit.
The model is being prepared by the department so that it can be replicated by all the hospitals, where hybrid critical care units will come up.
It is being developed in such a manner so that the model can be followed by the hospitals. The size of the hybrid CCU may differ from one hospital to another, depending upon their availability of space, a health official said.