To cater to the needs of COVID-19 patients, a permanent structure with 400 beds is to come up at the Government Erode Medical College Hospital (GEMCH) at Perundurai at ₹ 7.5 crore for which work commenced here on Tuesday.
Currently, there are 550 beds at the hospital providing treatment only to COVID-19 patients.
Since patients from other districts also arrive at the hospital, the beds with oxygen and ventilator support are fully occupied and with a spike in cases, the demand for beds is also going up.
On May 16, Minister for Housing and Urban Development S. Muthusamy laid the foundation for establishing a facility on the hospital premises that would have 500 beds. While 300 beds will be ready within 10 days, another 200 beds will be ready in 25 days. Collector C. Kathiravan, members of rotary, Dean R. Mani and others were present.
Many rotary organisations, volunteers, industries and non-resident Indians have come forward to establish a permanent structure with 400 beds and work commenced on Tuesday. All the beds will have an oxygen facility and the new building will be named as Rotary Special Block. A Tiruppur-based construction company, using pre-cast technology, will execute the work round-the-clock and will complete the building in a month’s time.
Once all works are completed, the bed strength in the hospital would increase from 550 to 1,450 beds.
