4-month-old Advanced Trauma Centre still not fully functional

However,other pertinent departments such as neurosurgery,general surgery,plastic surgery and urology are yet to start taking up trauma and emergency cases in these specialities at the centre.

According to sources,in the absence of fully functional trauma centre,the entire patient burden is on the existing emergency wing which is loaded more than its capacity and thus has a continuous pressure on the other operation theatres where routine procedures are performed.

PGI treated more than 50,000 patients in the emergency wing during the last financial year,which is at least three times more than the emergency bed capacity of the hospital.

As per PGI’s own records,in 2010-2011,PGI treated 52,298 patients (including paediatric patients) under emergency services. A large number of these were trauma cases.

At present,PGI emergency wing handles over 400 patients a day. They get around 200 new patients on an average at both medical and surgical emergency OPD and 180 patients remain admitted in the emergency ward all the time.

When contacted,PGI’s official spokesperson Manju Wadwalkar,said,“The CPWD is yet to hand over the building to PGI authorities. Once the building is handed over,only then it can be made fully functional as there are still some finishing touches being given to some parts of the building and as such expensive equipment cannot be moved in for fear of wear and tear.”

The construction of the Advanced Trauma Centre,which was conceived over a decade ago under the ninth Five Year Plan in 2000,had missed several deadlines. The total cost of the entire project was around Rs 55 crore and with state-of-the-art high tech medical equipment costing around Rs 20 crore.

Once it becomes fully functional,it will cater to all trauma cases such as accident victims from the region that are currently brought to the PGI Emergency Wing.

When fully functional,the Advanced Trauma Centre is expected to take 60 per cent load off the existing Emergency Wing,said one of the doctors associated with the supervision work of the ATC.

The centre has an 18-bed intensive care unit,five major operation theatres,a 28-bed disaster area,separate blood bank & plaster room,a biochemistry lab and a microbiology lab.

The ATC has 22 private rooms and was opened in April this year.