Makeshift hospitals to come up in districts at Rs 23 crore

Nitin Jain

Tribune News Service

Ludhiana, November 24

In order to give a major boost to the health infrastructure and ramp up the existing facilities in the state, new makeshift hospitals will come up in the districts at a cost of Rs 23 crore, the government has confirmed.

A proposal to this effect has been prepared under the Emergency Covid Response Package (ECRP-II), the officials have said.

According to the summary of the proposal and approval made by the Health and Family Welfare Department, a copy of which is with The Tribune, the government will set up essential diagnostic and RT-PCR laboratories at a cost of Rs 119.41 crore, essential drugs at Rs 23 crore, ramping up health infrastructure with focus on paediatric care unit at Rs 174.32 crore, enhancement of human resource for health at Rs 6.16 crore, IT intervention — Health Management Information System (HMIS) and tele-consultation — at Rs 10 crore, and capacity building and training at Rs 90 lakh.

Of the entire proposals amounting to Rs 333.8 crore, the government has already approved a sum of Rs 310.6 crore for ramping up the health infrastructure.

Besides, the government has also proposed other key activities under the ECRP-II, which included establishing paediatric care centres in each district hospital and four medical colleges, RT-PCR testing laboratories in each district, centre of excellence in paediatric at Government Medical College (GMC) in Amritsar, liquid medical oxygen storage tanks at 17 districts (6 from SDRF), medical gas pipeline system at 11 health facilities (remaining all district and sub-divisional hospitals from SDRF), HIMS at all four GMCs, and setting up telemedicine/consultation hubs at four GMCs and four districts with 230 spokes.

Proposal and approval

A sum of Rs333.8 crore has been proposed to be spent on the ramping up of the healthcare infrastructure in the state, of which Rs310.6 crore have already been approved.

Officialspeak

As per the Emergency Covid Response Package (ECRP-II) scheme, Punjab will contribute its share of Rs132.59 crore and Centre will release Rs198.88 crore for the implementation of the works through the Department of Health and Family Welfare and National Health Mission. Hussan Lal, Principal Secretary to CM

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