Another superspecialty for Kozhikode Medical College Hospital

Kozhikode: The Kozhikode Medical College Hospital is  set to get its second super specialty hospital  soon. The union  health ministry signed the first contract with the HHL Life Care Limited for the construction of the super specialty block (SSB)  at KMCH at a cost of Rs 160 crore by 2017.

The SSB, a venture under the  Prime Minister’s Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY),   is a mega complex which houses several super specialty departments, wards, operation theatres, ICUs and the organ transplantation unit.

“The SSB unit will  come up in the old women’s hostel location of KMC, which will be shifted to the new building.  The works are underway and it will be  opened  to the students soon,”  said  Principal P.V. Narayanan. The SSB will accommodate up to 250 beds in the 16, 263 square-foot complex in seven floors with  modern amenities.

Special clinics for emergency medicine, family medicine, neonatology, immuno haematology and transfusion medicine and centre diagnostic system with biochemistry, pathology and microbiology departments are part of the SSB programme. It will also include trauma care and emergency medicine department in its initial stages. The new women’s hostel will come up near the Coffee House building and the old hostel will be used for SSB.  

Mr M.K. Raghavan MP had intervened in the matter and submitted the proposal for the second SSB  to the Union Health Ministry. The PMSSY has funded the SSB project in 14 government medical college hospitals in the country.  In Kerala, it  has funded SSB for  Alappuzha and Kozhikode.

Staff canteen at cost of neuro ICU
 

An air-conditioned canteen for employees is coming up in the space identified for the neurosurgery department to start an ICU, a long pending demand, at Medical College Hospital (MCH) here. The construction of the canteen has almost been completed adjacent to the neurosurgery ward on the second floor.

The canteen project was earlier resisted by youth organisations as the neurosurgery ward and ICU were struggling with overcrowded patients.
“We still have the facilities we had when the department was started in 1968. But the patient load has increased manifold. There is only 10-bed capacity in the two ICUs. The canteen space is enough to build a 20-bed ICU,” associate professor Dr M.P. Rajeev said.

When the department proposed the ICU six years ago, it was rejected saying departments of neurosurgery and thoracic surgery would be shifted to a speciality block soon.
That did not happen and they were told that no surgical speciality departments would be shifted to speciality block. The pitiable condition is that neurosurgery department doesn't have a complete ward. The 18th ward is being shared by cardiothoracic surgery wing.

Sources said the surgical ICU and medical ICU had been functioning underfloor the upcoming canteen. “The adamant stand of MCH authorities negated the possibility of setting up the ICU,” they said.

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