ESI to build hospital at Haldia

The Employees' State Insurance Corporation plans to build 100-bed hospital at Haldia in West Bengal with an investment of around Rs 7 crore.

The corporation had received an in-principal approval from the Union government and was now waiting for a final nod from the ministry of labour, said B K Sahu, additional commissioner and regional director, ESIC, West Bengal region, at a seminar organised by the Indian Chamber of Commerce on Friday.

The hospital will be fully operational by the end of 2009, with the first phase expected to be open by the next year.

This would be the 15th ESI hospital in the state.

At present, the total bed capacity of ESI hospitals, including smaller clinics and diagnostic centres is about 3,777.

This apart, the corporation will upgrade several smaller ESI hospitals with 15-beds in the public private partnership (PPP) model at the district level.

The facilities""called the "model hospitals"-- will be built at Kharagpur, Siliguri and Asansol initially.

"Only nearly 75 per cent capacity of ESI hospitals at the districts are utilised, whereas ideally it should be not less than 85 per cent. With this view, we have decided to upgrade them in the PPP model," said Sahu.

ESI has tie-up arrangements with private hospitals like Peerless Hospital and B K Roy Research Centre, R N Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences, AMRI hospital and Bimal Arogya Niketan, Kharagpur for specialied treatments.

Also the ESI directorate is likely to grant a sum of Rs 50 lakh for upgrading the ESI hospital at Sealdah, according to Sahu.