The state health department has taken up the task of starting new facilities and services at the Siliguri District Hospital and the Jalpaiguri Medical College and Hospital.

At the Siliguri facility, 24-hour pathology laboratory service will be available soon, along with additional ticket counters for the outpatient departments (OPDs). At the Jalpaiguri facility, the blood bank has recently been upgraded to a regional blood transfusion centre.

Chandan Ghosh, the superintendent of Siliguri District Hospital, said that as of now, they offered 24-hour pathology lab service at the critical care unit alone.

“We plan to extend the facilities of the lab to other departments. Also, five more ticket counters will be opened for OPDs at the hospital to reduce the queue of patients and their kin,” said Ghosh.

The counters will be dedicated to female patients, male patients, senior citizens and physically challenged people, expectant mothers and repeat patients.

Every day, around 2,000 tickets are issued from the counters to patients who visit doctors at the OPDs. Among these, around 1,200 are new patients and the rest are repeat visitors.

“Around one-third of the patients at the OPDs are repeat ones, which proves that the hospital gives good service,” claimed Ghosh.

At the Jalpaiguri facility, medical college authorities said that the blood bank was upgraded to a transfusion centre.

“The centre has eight blood banks under its jurisdiction, which makes it the largest regional blood transfusion centre in north Bengal,” said Kalyan Khan, vice-principal of the medical college.

He spoke of a plan to introduce breathalysers to prevent drunk people from entering the campus and causing a ruckus.