GUWAHATI, Sept 14 - Unveiling the Assam Critical Care Infrastructure project, Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma today said under the Rs 250-crore programme, ICU facilities will be extended up to the district hospitals.
The project is partly funded by the Ministry of DoNER that has provided Rs 140 crore. The State government will bear the remaining cost.
�We are setting up ICUs is 21 district hospitals. Also, at each medical college, we will add 100 ICUs. The PWD has called for tenders and the new infrastructure will be ready in two months,� he said.
The minister today distributed appointment letters to 1,000 staff nurses under the National Health Mission, Assam and 215 ICU technicians under the health department at a ceremony here. While around 34 doctors were recruited yesterday, ICU sisters will be appointed in a month�s time.
�Till the new ICUs are ready, the newly recruited staff will be trained at the existing ICUs in medical colleges,� the minister said, adding that the project will give a big push to the public health system in the State.
Since the COVID-19 outbreak, around 5,000 staff have been recruited by the health department and NHM.
The plan to expand the ICU facilities comes in the wake of the growing number of COVID-19 patients needing intensive care. ICU facilities in the State are limited, and the health department is apprehensive that if the spike in the virus cases continues, there will be a serious crisis of hospital beds from October.
The State�s COVID-19 positivity rate increased to 8.33 yesterday as 1,292 new cases were detected in 15,515 tests conducted. The number of discharged patients is 1,13,133, while 16 new deaths on Sunday took the toll to 469.
