SCB Hospital In Cuttack To Get 9 ECMO Machines, To Be Operational By Aug 15

Cuttack: The Sriram Chandra Bhanja Medical College and Hospital (SCBMCH) in Cuttack is all set to receive nine Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) machines which will be operational by August 15, 2021, informed Pradipta Mohapatra, Additional Chief Secretary, Odisha Health Department, on Wednesday.

Making the important announcement, Mohapatra said that six machines out of the proposed nine will be purchased using the State government's fund while the rest three machines will be procured through CSR fund.

All nine machines will be setup at the department of Cardiothoracic and Vascular Surgery (CTVS) in SCBMCH, he informed.

Elaborating further, Mohapatra said, "As far as the technicians to operate the machine are concerned, all the personnel have been selected and will soon leave for Kolkata to get training."

"They will be trained there till July 31, and, hopefully, the machines will be operational by August 15 this year," he added.

It is pertinent to mention here that, the State had already received its first ECMO machine for treatment of critical Covid-19 patients and the installation process is currently underway at the All India Institute Of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Bhubaneswar.

The ECMO machine was delivered at the premier healthcare institute on June 29. Medical Superintendent of AIIMS, Dr Sachidananda Mohanty had stated that the ECMO machine will be operational by July 15 and a second such machine is expected to arrive soon.