Private hospital in Balurghat to be converted into Corona treatment centre

BALURGHAT: The district administration and Health department have stepped up its preparations to fight Coronavirus and the officials are planning to convert a Balurghat based eye hospital into a full-fledged novel Corona Hospital temporarily with a capacity to accommodate 21 patients initially. No positive Covid-19 case have been reported from South Dinajpur yet.

The hospital is located at Raghunathpur in Balurghat beside National Highway 512.

Chief Medical Officer of Health Dr Sukumar Dey said Prayas Atreyee, the eye hospital can be transformed into a hospital to admit and treat COVID-19 patients. Dr Dey, District Magistrate Nikhil Nirmal, Deputy Inspector General (Malda Range) Prasun Banerjee, newly-elected Rajya Sabha MP Arpita Ghosh along with other high-ranked officials from the district administration and Health department saw the infrastructure and expressed satisfaction.

Dr Dey said the facility would be ready very soon. "There was enough space to set up an isolation centre for another 15 patients shortly," he said.

An official of the eye hospital said: "At present the situation is grim. We all need to assist and cooperate with the government either by providing finance or infrastructure. We are all ready to face the situation together."

It may be noted that Balurghat district hospital can accommodate 100 patients while Gangarampur sub-divisional hospital can accommodate 40 COVID-19 patients.