The Calcutta Medical College and Hospital will start functioning as a designated Covid-19 hospital from Thursday. It will also treat people suffering from severe acute respiratory illness, chief minister Mamata Banerjee tweeted on Wednesday.
Close to 200 beds will be reserved for Covid-19 patients and the rest for patients with severe acute respiratory illness (SARI), a health department official said.
“The hospital has advanced infrastructure as it is a medical college; so, it can treat critical patients,” the official said. “Patients admitted to the hospital with other illnesses will be shifted out gradually.”
The health department official said these patients would remain separated from Covid-19 and SARI patients. So, there will be no threat to them, he said.
The symptoms of SARI are fever, persistent cough and difficulty in breathing, a doctor said.
“Keeping in view the increasing need of ramping up specialised COVID treatment in the State, we have decided to notify Medical College, Kolkata as a full-fledged tertiary level COVID Hospital, which will start functioning from 7th May 2020 onwards,” she said in her tweet. “The facility at Medical College, Kolkata will start with 500 beds (for both COVID and SARI) which would be scaled up as per need, in phases. This will be the 68th dedicated COVID hospital of West Bengal.”
The New Town campus of Chittaranjan National Cancer Institute (CNCI), MR Bangur Hospital in Tollygunge, an annexe building of AMRI Salt Lake and the Beleghata ID Hospital were earlier designated as “state-level” hospitals to treat Covid-19 patients. MR Bangur has 1,100 beds, CNCI 192, Beleghata ID 82 and AMRI Salt Lake 51.
Those who feel they have Covid-19 symptoms can visit the hospital’s emergency ward. “Doctors will examine them and decide whether to get them admitted to Calcutta Medical College or to refer them to other hospitals,” the official said.
There is a need to increase the number of beds for Covid-19 patients because of the rise in the number of patients, the health department official said. “Beds in most of the Covid-19 hospitals in Calcutta are filled with patients. So, more beds are needed.”
