The Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research ( PGIMER), Chandigarh, will now have more space to attend to patients in critical condition. The PGI administration has got an in-principal nod for the construction of a critical care block at the PGI hospital premises.
The PGI will get a 150-bed facility soon, for which the Centre has sanctioned Rs 208 crore. This project will come up under the aegis of the Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission PM-ABHIM.
The union government has already approved Rs 100 crore for this project. The remaining portion – of about Rs 88 crore — will be spent by PGI.
The scheme comes as part of the special programme to set up critical care units in 12 central hospitals under the Pradhan Mantri Ayushman Bharat Health Infrastructure Mission. After the second wave of COVID, critical care became a point of concern across the nation and there was a heavy shortage of ICU beds.
The critical care will have an emergency area and the Intensive Care Unit, Isolation Wards, Operating Theatres, and labour and recovery rooms and a neo-natal care unit.
The block will also have medical gas supply lines right to the bed, oxygen manufacturing plants, oxygen supply, air handling units and mechanisms for infection prevention and control.
Apart from the ICU beds, the critical care block will also have general wards which will come up near the cardiac care institute. The construction will begin in 2023 itself.
During the second COVID wave, the PGI had a dedicated 250-bed arrangement for critically suffering COVID patients. Apart from this, the entire Nehru block was also available for COVID patients.
