ROURKELA: The demand to upgrade Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC)’s 50-bed model hospital (MH) at Rourkela, which till recently was Odisha’s only Model Hospital, into a medical college and hospital (MCH) has been renewed even as it has seen no or little development in nearly two decades.
Odisha Unit CITU Vice-President Jehangir Ali said after Khurda district, the ESIC has second highest Insured Persons (IPs) of about 82,000 in Sundargarh and still the MH at Rourkela has seen no or little improvement in past 19 years.
Renewing the old demand to set up an MCH by ESIC at Rourkela, he said till such time the MH should be upgraded to 250 beds and as an immediate need, the hospital be equipped with digital x-ray, ultra-sound and CT Scan facilities with technicians.
While he welcomed the move of ESIC to set up healthcare facilities in different parts of the State, he flayed it for ignoring the necessities of Odisha’s most significant industrial city and district with vast mining operations.
Ali said, during 2008, when the ESIC proposed an MCH for Odisha on PPP mode, Rourkela had emerged as a natural choice but the State government for political reasons proposed it for Balangir and then Bhubaneswar as the proposal was finally withdrawn a few years later. The ESIC had then also proposed a dental college for Rourkela, but to no avail, he claimed, adding the CITU with like-minded people would revive the movement for the MCH demand.
Sources said after being taken over by the ESIC in 2003, the MH is now proposed to be upgraded to a 100-bed hospital with a survey done three months back over feasibility to construct another floor on the existing building.
ESIC’s Regional Director PS Panda said the ESIC is on an overdrive to augment healthcare facilities across Odisha, adding two 100-bed hospitals for Jharsuguda and Jajpur district, a 150-bed super speciality hospital for Bhubaneswar and one 30-bed hospital for Paradip have been finalised and land earmarked. Rourkela is also given adequate attention as the strength of the model hospital is going to be doubled, he informed.