Thiruvananthapuram: The Medical College Hospital (MCH) authorities have initiated discussions on implementing its proposal for upgradation under the Rs.120-crore Centrally assisted Pradhan Manthri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana. The Centre has already cleared the proposal.

The MCH authorities have decided to make a start by immediately `re-locating' certain crucial departments and `re-furbishing' existing facilities in a phased manner.

Re-location

It has now been confirmed that the three-storey building opposite the present casualty block and which had been ear-marked for setting up a Trauma Care unit, will no longer be used for trauma care. This building has been idling for the last four years, as the MCH and PWD authorities debated ways and means of connecting it to the casualty block by constructing a ramp.

Now that this building is not required for the trauma unit, the new proposal is to utilise this idle space for other departments. Accordingly, the ground floor will house the Radio Diagnosis department. The Blood Bank will be shifted to the first floor of this building while the second floor will have a centralised laboratory for biochemistry, microbiology and pathology investigations. The out-patient divisions of Psychiatry and Physical Medicine departments and the theatre of the Dermatology department will be shifted to the old premises of the blood bank.

A `temporary' Trauma Care Unit will be started in this space vacated by these departments in the ground floor of the main OP block.

Casualty being shifted

The new building that is coming up behind the Dental College, where the residents' quarters used to be, will be the OP block in future. Once completed, all outpatient divisions of departments other than the Super speciality units will be shifted here. This means that three floors in the present OP block will fall vacant. It has been proposed to shift the casualty to this block.

The entrance to the new casualty will be from the portico opposite the Dental College and not directly from the main road.

Finally, the full-fledged Trauma Care would be started in the space where the casualty is currently located.

These decisions are learnt to have been taken at a recent meeting of the Medical College authorities and heads of departments.

The meeting was also attended by Dinesh Arora, who is the special officer in charge of the MCH upgradation

Dissent notes

However, many point out that these proposals involve a lot of unnecessary expenditure.

"Till now, the main reason that the Trauma Care unit could not be started in the building that was earmarked for it was the difficulty in constructing a ramp to connect it to the casualty.

The estimate for the project, which started at Rs.30 lakhs now stands at over Rs.1 crore, which was one of the reasons for declaring that the project was not feasible.

Now, it looks as though the ramp would be required after all, because all radio diagnostic equipment — CT and MRI scans etc — would be housed in the ground floor of this building. If the final location of the Trauma unit is the present casualty, then a ramp would be absolutely necessary for transporting patients across," an official pointed out.

Psychiatry department

The Psychiatry department is quite cut up about being made to vacate their premises as they had recently utilised a chunk of the additional Central assistance of Rs.50 lakh for making their OP clinic more comfortable and patient-friendly.

The department here, was one among the three Medical College departments in the State chosen by the Centre for availing of funds for development.

Medical College Principal A.V. Remadevi said no plans have been finalised but that some changes would be implemented immediately, with least disturbance to the hospital's functioning.

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