Bhubaneswar: At least 5,000 more indoor patient beds (IPDs) will be added in govt hospitals, including 1,800 at SCB Medical College and Hospital, Cuttack, besides 1,000 advanced ICU beds and 500 high-dependency units (HDUs) in the coming days, CM Mohan Charan Majhi announced while tabling the state budget in the assembly on Friday. The plan also includes sanctioning specialist doctors, nurses and technicians. Majhi proposed an outlay of Rs 23,182 crore for health and family welfare, including Rs 17,737 crore under programme expenditure. Health spending has been pegged at more than 7.5% of the total budget.The additional indoor patient beds will be created across medical colleges, district headquarters hospitals and community health centres. For critical care, the state will set up 1,000 advanced ICU beds with ventilators and centralised monitoring, procure biomedical equipment, and add new dialysis units.“This mission will ease hospital congestion, strengthen our emergency response, and build a world-class critical care backbone for every citizen in our state,” Majhi said, adding that the govt will increase 500 postgraduate seats over the next two years. He also proposed introducing nursing, paramedical and allied health courses in districts where such govt facilities are not available.Under the Mukhya Mantri Swasthya Seva Mission, the govt earmarked Rs 5,008 crore for expanding and modernising health infrastructure, including redevelopment of major institutions such as SCB and Vimsar in Burla, and for establishing and maintaining sub-divisional hospitals, CHCs and Ayushman Arogya Mandirs in rural areas.The budget provides Rs 1,000 crore for redevelopment of SCB and Rs 600 crore for MKCG Medical College and Hospital, Berhampur, and Vimsar. To strengthen Ayush services, the chief minister proposed three new ayurvedic medical colleges in Gajapati, Malkangiri and Rayagada, and two homoeopathy medical colleges in Nayagarh and Nuapada, with an outlay of Rs 140 crore.For primary healthcare outreach, the budget proposes Rs 176 crore to establish 1,807 additional sub-centres and Rs 200 crore for dedicated burn units in Puri, Burla, Koraput, Berhampur and Capital Hospital.The govt also announced the launch of an Odisha Pharma and Biotech Research and Innovation Centre to support oncology research, biologics development, herbal drug standardisation, advanced therapy products, medical device innovation and industry-academia collaboration.A new scheme, ‘Atala Rakta Dana Abhiyan’, was announced for setting up blood banks in all medical colleges, upgrading and modernising blood banks across the state, deploying 50 mobile blood collection units, and establishing plasma fractionation centres.The Odisha Cancer Care Plan was revamped as the ‘Mukhya Mantri Cancer Care Abhiyan’, with Rs 311 crore proposed for community awareness, village-level screening and mobile camps, a cancer registry, a digital hub-and-spoke model for early treatment, and free patient transportation services.
