Kolkata: SSKM set to start ID dept at Sambhunath Pandit

KOLKATA: Institute of Post Graduate Medical Education & Research (IPGMER) could soon be churning out infectious disease (ID) specialists. To set the ball rolling Bengal’s prestigious multispeciality hospital, popularly known as SSKM, has created an ID department at its annexe unit Sambhunath Pandit Hospital (SNPH). Two ID specialist doctors have already been posted.
“For the first time, IPGMER has created the ID department. This was the first step to run an academic course in this speciality. We aim to run a 60-bedded ward that will take care of all types of infectious diseases and start DM course in ID,” said IPGMER director Manimoy Banerjee.
The course is a three-year post-doctoral programme in infectious diseases. The Covid-19 pandemic has brought forth the scarcity of infectious diseases specialists across the country. Earlier School of Tropical Medical Kolkata had applied for starting this curriculum. While the National Medical Council has already inspected the facility at STM, the medical institute is yet to get the nod. IPGMER will be aiming to create four DM seats to begin with.
Being the busiest multispecialty hospital in the state, IPGMER gets patients suffering from a spectrum of diseases and has transplant facilities. Health experts said IPGMER will provide a learning ground for doctors who would be trained in infectious diseases. Currently India has only a couple of institutes — AIIMS New Delhi and Christian Medical College Vellore — that produce ID specialists.
Two ID specialists — Yogiraj Ray and Ayan Basu — have already been detailed at IPGMER. The two doctors have started looking after the Covid-ICU at SNPH along with other cases of infectious diseases.
“These two DMs in infectious diseases have already joined us. We have submitted our proposal for post creation. Once that is sanctioned by departments including finance, we can call for more faculty members,” said the IPGMER director.
Apart from Ray, Basu there are at least three more AIIMS-trained ID specialists who are currently working in Kolkata that include Sayantan Banerjee attached with ID Hospital Beliaghata, Soumyadip Chatterji and Sayan Chakraborty both attached with two different private hospitals.
“IPGMER would be an institute that would give a good exposure to students on all perspective of infectious diseases,” said Ray who is an assistant professor.
Sources at IPGEM indicated that the institute might require two more faculty members to run the department and teach students. Apart from these five, sources said that a couple of such AIIMS pass out specialists from Bengal are working in other states.
During the pandemic the state government had expressed the need to churn out more specialists and expand treatment facility to other hospitals as well.