Work on a level-one trauma care centre has begun at the Government Medical College Hospital (MCH), Kozhikode.
This is part of constructing a pan-India trauma care network in government hospitals to ensure that no trauma victim has to be transported for more than 50 km and a designated trauma centre is available at every 100 km. Level-one centres will provide the highest level of definitive and comprehensive care for patients with complex injuries, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. They are being set up only in medical college hospitals with more than 500 beds. In Kerala, such centres are coming up only at the Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode medical college hospitals.
Hospital sources told The Hindu on Tuesday that the new building would be conceived as an annexe of the trauma care centre that was recently opened along with the new casualty ward at the PMSSY block.
The total estimated cost of the proposed five-storey building is ₹27 crore. In the initial phase, work on the ground floor, costing around ₹11 crore, is being undertaken. The ground floor is expected to have a registration centre, minor operation theatre, observation ward, and scanning facilities. The casualty ward will be linked to the new building through a corridor. The first floor will have operation theatres and intensive care units and the third and fourth floors will have wards.
Accident victims will be first given emergency treatment at the casualty ward. If the patients are found to be not in a critical condition, they will be shifted to the trauma centre. The hospital authorities are expecting that all those requiring trauma care at the medical college hospital could be shifted to the new centre once it becomes operational. The work on the first floor is expected to be completed by March 2025.
Meanwhile, there is still no clarity on the deployment of staff for the new building. The sources pointed out that it would be difficult to manage the new facility with the existing staff strength.
