MCH third government hospital in Kolkata to turn into a Covid facility

KOLKATA: Medical College and Hospital Kolkata (MCHK) will become the third government facility in the city to treat Covid patients after MR Bangur Hospital and the unit on the second campus of Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute (CNCI) at New Town. The hospital is getting ready to start new admissions.
Chief minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday tweeted: “Keeping in view the increasing need of ramping up specialised Covid treatment in the state, we have decided to notify Medical College, Kolkata as a full-fledged tertiary level Covid Hospital, which will start functioning from 7th May 2020 onwards.”

Banerjee also tweeted that the facility will start with 500 beds both for SARI and Covid patients which would be scaled up as per need, in phases and that this will be the 68th dedicated Covid hospital in the state.

Located at the heart of the city that has around 20 containment areas in its immediate surrounding and also given the number of experienced hands the hospital has, health department officials said this was the need of the hour.
Hospital sources said that the administration has been working silently towards converting the hospital into a Covid facility for the past few weeks, but said that it might not be possible to start taking in patients from Thursday.
“In fact, we have 550 beds ready for the purpose and we are giving the final touches. And also, we are finalising the duty roster for doctors for the Covid hospitals,” said a source in the hospital.
This is the second attempt at designating MCHK as a Covid hospital. The health department towards March-end had tried for the same. But the plan backfired as many in the core Covid team of the hospital wanted the flaws that they pointed out to be corrected first. Ultimately the plan was shelved and MR Bangur Hospital and CNCI were made Covid hospitals.
“300 beds at the superspecialty building and 250 more beds at the hospital’s Green Building will be utilised for the purpose,” said a doctor in the hospital.
The newly constructed superspecialty building already runs an isolation unit for suspected cases. Sources hinted that 300 beds in the superspecialty building will continue to operate as isolation ward for suspected Covid cases and for SARI patients while the Green Building will be used for treating positive cases.