Bhubaneswar: Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan wrote to Union Coal Minister Pralhad Joshi asking him to allow MCL’s Talcher hospital to function as a dedicated COVID-19 unit with ICU facilities.
He also urged him to make provision of 100 ventilators at the hospital.
“Due to the explosive resurgence of COVID-19 cases in Angul district, it is necessary to grant emergency permission for supplementing COVID-19 care at MCL’s Nehru Satabdi Central Hospital (NSCH) at Talcher with 100 ventilators,” he wrote.
“Keeping in mind the exponential rise in number of Covid-19 cases in Angul and limited number of COVID-19 treatment facilities in the region, it is essential to operationalize and supplement critical medical infrastructure in the region. I therefore seek your personal intervention in declaring NSCH as COVID Hospital with ICU facilities and also issue necessary permission to officials concerned for making urgent arrangements of 100 ventilators at the hospital,” the letter read.
NSCH Talcher was functioning as COVID-19 hospital with 144 beds and six ICU units during the first wave of the pandemic, he mentioned in the letter.
