Two top health officials of the state government, director of medical education, Debashish Bhattacharya, and Soumitra Mohan of the directorate of National Health Mission, today inspected the Malda Medical College and Hospital (MMCH) to oversee preparations for the expected ‘third wave’ of Covid-19.

District officials like the District Magistrate and chairman of the Rogi Kalyan Samity, Rajarshi Mitra, MMCH principal Dr Parthapratim Mukherjee, Medical Superintendent and Vice-Principal Puranjoy Saha, among others accompanied the top officials.

They visited various wards and facilities of the hospital and held a meeting later in the conference room of the MMCH, where they especially discussed maternal care, mortality, health and critical trauma care facilities, which all hinted at their concerns for the ‘third wave’ of the coronavirus, sources said.

“The visiting officials expressed their satisfaction over the health services being provided by the MMCH but had nothing on the future of the 177 casual workers staging a hunger strike in the MMCH campus in demand of their
salary and permanent status,” a source said.

According to sources, the visit of these state officials was basically a routine one, however, “they also wanted to have a deeper into the preparations for the third wave that may hit us.” “Such visits are being conducted in every medical college and hospital across the state,” a source added.

According to Dr Bhattacharya, the state government has taken up measures before the ‘third wave’ of coronavirus hits. “Over 30,000 beds for Covid patients and 4600 beds in the PIKU have already been readied. Doctors and nurses here worked with their heart and soul during the first and second waves of Covid-19 and we are satisfied to see the present condition of the super-speciality hospital here,” he said.

Dr Bhattacharya added that the government had implemented many new health services in the last 10 years and was looking forward to many such projects and schemes for better infrastructure and services. “Here, we have a trauma care centre and a super-speciality hospital to start as soon as possible,” he said