Odisha Fights COVID-19: Third Standalone Hospital With SOA Assistance Opened At Talcher

Bhubaneswar: The Institute of Medical Sciences (IMS) and SUM Hospital Faculty of Medicine of the SOA Deemed to be University, on Monday signed a tripartite agreement with the Odisha government and Mahanadi Coalfields Limited (MCL) to set up a 156-bed COVID-19 hospital at Talcher in Angul district.

It’s the third COVID hospital in the state to be set up with the assistance of IMS and SUM Hospital within the last fortnight.

On April 6, a 525-bed standalone COVID hospital, the largest such facility in the state, started operation in the SOA campus. Thereafter, another facility, with 110 beds, was set up at Chhata near Kendrapara.

The agreement was signed by IMS and SUM Hospital Medical Superintendent, Dr Pusparaj Samantasinhar, Collector and District Magistrate of Angul, Manoj Kumar Mohanty, and General Manager of MCL, N.G. Brahmapurkar.

The 156 beds include six ICU beds.

The new hospital was inaugurated through a video conference in which Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, Union minister for Petroleum, Natural Gas and Steel, Dharmendra Pradhan, Union Minister for Coal, Mines and Parliamentary Affairs, Prahlad Joshi, Odisha’s health and family welfare minister Naba Das, state chief secretary Asit Kumar Tripathy, Development Commissioner Suresh Kumar Mohapatra, Secretary to Chief Minister (5T), V.K. Pandian, state’s chief spokesman on COVID-19, Subroto Bagchi and other senior officials took part.

Twenty-five COVID hospitals, with more than 5000 beds, have been set up in 22 districts of Odisha so far.