By Our Correspondent
NEW DELHI/BHUBANESWAR/ROURKELA: Minister of Steel and Petroleum & Natural Gas Shri Dharmendra Pradhan today dedicatedto the people, augmented ICU Ventilator facilities atIspat Post Graduate Institute (IPGI) and Super Specialty Hospital (SSH) of SAIL at Rourkela, Odisha for treatment of Covid patients. The IPGI and SSH Complex was dedicated to the Nation by the President of India on 21st March, 2021. The virtual event was also attended by the Minister of State for Steel Faggan Singh Kulaste, Odisha Health Minister NabaKisore Das, MP from Sundargarh JualOram, MLAs from the area, Chairperson and CEO of SAILMs Soma Mondal, and Senior Officers of the Ministry of Steel and SAIL.
Speaking on the occasion, Pradhan said that patients from different places of in and around Rourkela as well as neighboring states had started availing the OPD facilities at SSH. Keeping in view the steep rise in the number of critically ill COVID patients in the region during the 2nd wave of the pandemic and realizing the urgent need of oxygenation and assisted ventilation, it was decided to operate a 60 bedded COVID ICU facility. Subsequently it was decided to upgrade the facility to a 100-bedded ICU. The Minister said that this upgraded ICU facility is a significant addition to the healthcare infra in the region and will bolster Odisha’s fight against the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Minister said that our steel companies have been putting their might to combat the deadly Covid pandemic, both in Odisha as well as nationally. The steel plants LMO supplies have been ramped up from 538 MT on April 1st 2021 to now over 4400 MT per day.He said that SAIL has also taken a slew of measures to contribute to Odisha’s fight against the pandemic.Rourkela Steel Plant set up a Virology Laboratory at its IGH in April-2020, which enabled quick Covid testing. The capacity of the testing facilities for RT-PCR has been enhanced from the initial 60/day to about 550 now and work is in progress to increase it to about 1000 nos./day within a short time. Shri Pradhan said that ensuring availability of masks and consumables like medicines, regular & massive sanitization in Plant & Township and other commensurate measures including use of PA system for creating awareness have also been taken. He said that a concerted effort by all stakeholders of the society to fight the COVID-19 pandemic is the need of the hour. Calling for stepping up efforts towards testing, treating and vaccination, Shri Pradhan urged SAIL to take up vaccination of all its stakeholders, including contract employees and residents in the vicinity of plants. “I call for a 1+2 approach towards vaccination, meaning for every vaccine given to an employee by the corporate house, they should give vaccination to 2 non-employees.”, he added
Pradhan said that since April’21, more than 9653 MT of the life-saving LMO has been dispatched from Rourkela Steel Plant (RSP)’s captive and BOO plant, to various states of the country including Odisha.Extra thrust has been given on ramping up production and dispatch of liquid medical oxygen from the RSP. Internal use of gaseous oxygen in the plant has been rationalized and necessary systemic modifications have been made to ensure round the clock dispatch of liquid medical oxygen from the plant, he added.
Pradhan expressed happiness that that as per the direction of Hon’ble Prime Minister, RSP is in the process of setting up a jumbo 500 bedded hospital at Sector-22 with piped gaseous oxygen supply directly from the plant with ventilators and other associated facilities. With this, there will be total about 1000 beds with oxygen and about 225 ventilators in SAIL’s Rourkela township, he added.
