BHUBANESWAR: Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik on Tuesday accorded in-principle approval for extending the Ama Hospital scheme to all government hospitals. The state government had decided to transform 147 health centres with high patient loads under the scheme, which initially aimed at improving infrastructure and ensuring enough manpower in at least one identified health facility in each Assembly segment.
The hospitals to be transformed included 30 district headquarters, 30 sub-divisional, 82 community health centres (CHCs), two urban primary health centres (PHCs) and City Hospital at Cuttack, besides Capital Hospital and Rourkela Government Hospital, at a cost of Rs 750 crore.
After the CM’s approval, all district headquarters and sub-divisional hospitals besides CHCs and PHCs would be transformed to strengthen healthcare services in the next four years. The government has also enhanced the bed strength of Jajpur District Headquarters Hospital (DHH) in view of the change in norms of the National Medical Commission (NMC) for a teaching hospital with 100 seats MBBS intake capacity.
A notification issued by the Health department on Tuesday said the bed strength of Jajpur DHH has been enhanced from 330 to 420 as per the change in the norms of NMC. The DHH would be the teaching hospital for Jajati Keshari Medical College and Hospital, Jajpur, which is expected to get the NMC approval for 2024-25.