BHUBANESWAR: In a significant move, the state government on Saturday enhanced the bed strength of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel Post Graduate Institute of Paediatrics (SVPPGIP), Cuttack to 846 for catering to the growing need of ailing children being referred from different districts and neighbouring states.
The Health and Family Welfare department has sanctioned 569 beds and 59 new faculty and doctor posts in different categories. Popularly known as Shishu Bhavan, the premier paediatric hospital now runs with only 277 beds and 54 faculty members and doctors.
Health and Family Welfare minister Mukesh Mahaling said there was a long standing demand to increase the number of beds and posts of doctors to meet the growing need of healthcare at the hospital.
“Required number of beds and faculty members have been sanctioned. The recruitment to the posts will be made soon,” he said.
The sanction of enhanced beds and posts came nearly four months after the inauguration of a new centrally air-conditioned seven-storey hospital building by Union Health and Family Welfare minister JP Nadda in the presence of Chief Minister Mohan Charan Majhi on 11 April.
The newly sanctioned posts include five professor posts, 10 posts of associate professor, 18 assistant professor posts, 24 posts of senior residents and two medical officer posts, one for blood bank and one drug store.
Spread over 23 acres of land, Shishu Bhavan was developed into a state-of-art tertiary paediatric care and teaching centre after the Health department merged the paediatric wing of the SCB Medical College and Hospital with it more than a decade back. It has 24 PG seats in paediatric medicine and six seats in paediatric surgery.
Mahaling said the latest expansion is the largest since the inception of the Shishu Bhavan in 1960. This will add to developing SVPPGIP to an advanced and premier paediatric institute in eastern India, he said.