ROURKELA: With Sundargarh grappling with the second peak of the pandemic, the SAIL on Thursday gave in-principle consent to utilise its newly-constructed super specialty facility on the premises of RSP’s Ispat General Hospital (IGH) as a dedicated Covid-19 hospital.
The new Covid hospital would be run in collaboration with Odisha government and modalities for operating the facility worked out shortly. The decision assumes significance in the backdrop of pressing need of adequate critical care facilities for Covid-19 patients in Rourkela and Sundargarh district.
In the last several days, Sundargarh has emerged as a Covid hotspot, counting the State’s highest number of daily new infections. The district’s active case tally was 2,856 on Thursday. In a statement, the RSP informed that under the leadership of Union Minister of Steel Dharmendra Pradhan, SAIL’s super specialty hospital at Rourkela has been approved to be used as Covid-19 care facility. In wake of the steep surge in Covid-19 cases in the region and acting on the request of the district administration, the Union Minister gave instructions to use the facility as a Covid hospital.
The 60-bed ICU facility would be converted into a Covid hospital with an aim to augment treatment facilities for patients infected by the virus. Reliable sources said the district administration on Wednesday had made a request in this regard and the Steel Ministry gave its nod on the day. The super specialty hospital technically comes under a trust headed by the Chief Executive Officer of RSP. Patients other than from the SAIL fraternity are charged for treatment at the hospital.
The Sundargarh district administration is likely to bear the treatment cost of Covid patients referred by it as is being done in the case of private hospitals including JP and Shanti Memorial at Rourkela. Incidentally, the IGH in collaboration with the district administration is running RT-PCR testing facility since last year.