SSKM gets trauma care unit for head & neck injuries with 100 beds at about Rs 200 cr

KOLKATA: The Institute of Otorhinolaryngology and Head Neck Surgery (IOHNS), a specialised trauma care unit for head or neck injuries at the SSKM Hospital that has already brought a paradigm shift in ENT treatment, emerges as a centre of excellence as it would carry out critical surgeries as well as research.

IOHNS, which has come up on the third and fourth floor of the ENT department at an approximate cost of Rs 200 crore is going to be a major center for those patients requiring high end treatment and surgeries involving head and neck.

According to the Health department officials, this is for the first time in eastern India such an advanced unit will cater to the requirements of young researchers and also to those requiring critical surgeries. Operation theaters have been set up on the fourth floor of the ENT department.

Medical students will be able to dissect temporal bones, neck, nose and other related organs from a dead body as a part of their curriculum. The entire anatomical procedure will be supervised and monitored by senior professors of the department.

Around 100 beds have been set up so far out of which 50 will be reserved for women patients. The department is equipped with around 5 ICU and 2 PICUs and a cabin. Various advanced equipment have been imported from Germany to provide best facilities to the patients at the government level.

A senior Health department official claimed that apart from AIIMs and PGIMER Chandigarh, there is no such unit in any medical colleges which could match the expertise and infrastructure of IOHNS at SSKM.

It may be mentioned here that the SSKM is coming up with a host of new projects following the instruction of the Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee which include a sports medicine center and a top class cancer hospital. The hospital has already been providing costly in-vitro-fertilization (IVF) treatment consultations at the outpatient department (OPD) at free-of-costs.

This is eastern India's first free IVF clinic opened by a government hospital.