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Bhubaneswar: Considering the need for advanced clinical intervention for the treatment of critical Covid-19 patients, the Odisha government is set to start full-fledged Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) unit at the SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack.
The Director of the Directorate of Medical Education Training (DMET), CBK Mohanty on Monday said that earlier there was no pressing demand for ECMO machines as it was mostly used for lung transplantations and treatment of other terminal diseases. Therefore, such equipments were available at inly 21 places in the country. Of the total 21 ECMO units, 19 are available with private hospitals while two others at government set ups in Lucknow and at AIIMS in New Delhi, he said.
Barring two private hospitals, no other State-run hospital in Odisha has ECMO facility, he said. “The need for such advanced equipment has gone up during the second wave of the Covid-19 pandemic. Keeping this in mind, the State government has already initiated the process to procure ECMO units.
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Initially the provision of six such equipment will be made at SCB,” said Mohanty. According to Mohanty, the six ECMO machines will be installed at the Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery (CTVS) department of SCB.
However, only procuring machines is not enough as the existing staff need to be trained to handle the equipment. “We have decided to keep all machines at one unit so that we have adequate personnel to use the equipment,” Mohanty said explaining the decision to install the machines at one place.
