2nd campus for hospital: mainly cater for patients from the Dooars, Sikkim and Kalimpong

Siliguri, Jan. 4.TT: The Siliguri MLA today announced that the second campus of the district hospital here would come up on the outskirts of town with a trauma care centre and emergency unit which would mainly cater for patients from the Dooars, Sikkim and Kalimpong.

The health authorities said the Siliguri District Hospital would soon have another neo-natal care unit also to treat ailing children who are up to one year of age.

“We are preparing a detailed project report for the second campus of the SDH. It will be set up on the premises of the TB Hospital at Second Mile off Sevoke Road. There is a vacant plot at the TB Hospital that can be used for the second campus. The project has been finalised on the basis of discussions with the chief minister and north Bengal development minister Gautam Deb,” said MLA Rudranath Bhattacharya, who is also the chairman of the Assembly’s standing committee on health.

He was speaking after the inauguration of a rest-shed for the patients and their relatives at the SDH.

The MLA said the huge rush of patients to the SDH had made the government think of the second campus. “Once the second campus becomes functional, the footfall of patients at the existing SDH will come down and doctors and staff will be able to provide better services.”

Bhattacharya said a trauma centre, an emergency unit with a CT scan facility would be established on the second campus. “As the area is located on Siliguri outskirts and close to NH31 that connects Dooars, Kalimpong and Sikkim, the trauma centre can help in dealing with accident cases,” said the MLA.

Bhattacharya also said a public address system would soon be installed at the SDH to provide information to patients and their relatives.

As of now, the SDH has 320 beds in general wards, 24 beds in the maternity ward and 10 beds at the sick new born care unit (SNCU). About 800 patients visit the out patient departments of the hospital every day, SDH sources said.

In a separate announcement, chief medical officer of health (CMOH), Darjeeling, Subir Bhowmik, said they had received Rs 10 lakh to set up a neo-natal unit at the SDH. This would supplement the SNCU, which was opened here last month, and treat children who are up to one year of age.

“The main task of the neo-natal unit is to provide best healthcare to ailing infants whose parents cannot afford to take them to private hospitals for treatment. Newborns and infants are susceptible to several life-threatening diseases like septicemia, infections, bronchopneumonia and low birth weight. They will need special care other than what is available in the paediatric ward. They need to have specialised facilities like SNCU and a neo-natal ward with sophisticated equipment to treat them,” said Bhowmik.