ROURKELA: Union Tribal Affairs Minister and Sundargarh MP Jual Oram on Tuesday wrote to Union Labour & Employment Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, urging him for immediate establishment of an ESIC Medical College and Hospital (MCH) in Rourkela.
The move follows a reply from Mandaviya on October 30 last year, which cited National Medical Council (NMC) norms such as a minimum of 220 beds, 80 per cent annual bed occupancy, and at least 400 daily OPD patients as prerequisites for setting up a new ESIC MCH.
In an official letter dated January 12, Oram questioned the reliance on existing ‘occupancy norms’ as a barrier, arguing that Rourkela is being unfairly penalised due to administrative and infrastructure bottlenecks.
Oram noted that while the NMC mandates 220 beds for an MCH, Rourkela’s existing ESIC Model Hospital is limited to 50 beds and proposed to bypass the current 170-bed expansion plan in favour of a 400+ bed super-specialty hospital, which would instantly satisfy all regulatory requirements.
Citing the successful models in Karnataka, Rajasthan and Bihar, an ESIC MCH in Rourkela will not only serve the over 3 lakh ESIC card holders (benefiting 12 lakh people), but also be open to the general public for a nominal fee. This would provide AIIMS-standard care to the marginalised tribal populations of northern Odisha and neighbouring Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand, he stated.
The union minister highlighted that due to the lack of healthcare infrastructure, over 80 patients are referred outside Rourkela everyday. He noted that the ESIC Model Hospital at Rourkela has in the past handled over 500 daily OPD patients, a demand that still exists but is currently stifled by a shortage of specialists and doctors.
He also drew a sharp contrast between the healthcare saturation in the state capital Bhubaneswar and the void in Rourkela which lacks even a single high-standard government super-specialty facility. The Bhubaneswar region already has over 18 MCHs with over 11 ESIC-tied private hospitals providing services.
“Establishing another facility in an already saturated capital (Bhubaneswar) will have minimal impact. However, a medical college in Rourkela will be a transformative lifeline for the entire tribal belt,” Oram remarked.
He said the Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP) of SAIL is ready to provide unused land for the proposed ESIC MCH, asserting that he personally guarantees that the Ministry of Tribal Affairs would facilitate land acquisition and necessary administrative clearances to ensure the project’s success under the ‘Aspirational Districts’ project.
Notably, in 2009, Rourkela was the front-runner for the proposed ESIC MCH. However, on the recommendation of Odisha government, Bhubaneswar was finalised and the proposal was eventually shelved.