Seven operating theatres equipped with modern facilities were inaugurated at the trauma care centre of Malda Medical College and Hospital (MMCH) on Tuesday.

Among the new OTs include an OT for neurosurgery, a first for state-run hospitals in the region.

The MMCH authorities said they have also fixed the site for an exclusive five-storey critical care unit (CCU) and an integrated laboratory.

In Malda, many road accidents are reported every year as three national highways (NH12, NH81 and NH512) and a number of state highways run through the district.

That’s why chief minister Mamata Banerjee had instructed officials of the health department to build a trauma care centre in the MMCH.

“The seven new OTs inaugurated on Tuesday have facilities to conduct neuro, general, orthopedic, ENT and ophthalmic surgeries. All are fitted with C-ARM machines used for intraoperative imaging during surgical procedures. Two OTs have come operational from Tuesday while the rest will start functioning within a week,” said Puranjay Saha, the vice-principal of MMCH.

Earlier, patients needing neurosurgery had to be referred to Calcutta, he added. “But not any more.”

Sources at the hospital said that as of now there is a 20-bed critical care unit at the MMCH.

“We need to have more beds with critical care facilities. That is why it has been decided to build a state-of-the-art CCU building next to the trauma care centre," said Rajarshi Mitra, the district magistrate of Malda.

The new CCU building, sources said, will be ready in another three years.

The hospital next plan is to set up a cath-lab so that cardiothoracic surgeries could be carried out here, a doctor of the MMCH added.