Theni government medical college gets one more postgraduate course

Three seats have been sanctioned and admission for the PG course - MD in Emergency Medicine - will begin during the academic year 2022-23

An upgraded hi-tech intensive care unit coming up in the Government Medical College Hospital in Theni | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

The National Medical Commission has sanctioned one more post graduate course - MD in Emergency Medicine - to the Government Medical College here.

Faculty and all staff have been posted for the new course. Three seats have been sanctioned to the department and admission for the course would begin during the academic year 2022-23, said Dean of the college, R. Balaji Nathan.

"The casualty ward which was upgraded as Tamil Nadu Accident and Emergency Care Initiative has been upgraded as Emergency Department. Consequently, the number of beds in emergency ward has been increased from 25 to 50," he added.

This is the ninth PG Department for the Theni Government Medical College Hospital. Other PG courses being offered in the college are MD General Medicine, MS General Surgery, MS Obstetrics and Gynaecology, MD Paediatrics, MD Anaesthesia, MD Anatomy, MD Psychiatry and MS Orthopaedic Surgery.

The intake for MBBS course here is 100 students.

‘In the last few years, the emergency care provided in Government Hospitals in the State are on a par with that of hospitals in London,” he said.

Right from the moment the 108 ambulance pick up a patient, the nearest Government Hospital gets pre-arrival intimation number with basic details of the patient. A team of medical officers required for the treatment will be ready and without any loss of time, the patient on arrival would get maximum medical care after taking up triage to assess the condition of the patient," he said.

The emergency ward would cater to six basic emergency situations like burn injuries, paediatric emergency, road traffic accidents, poisoning, snake bite and heart attack and stroke. "The best part of the emergency care in Government Hospitals is that the life saving treatment is given free of cost," he added.

Earlier, patients were taken different wards of different departments depending upon the nature of emergency.

‘But now we have set up the emergency ward in such a way that the trained medical officers and nurses can handle all the above said life saving situations. It is integrated and comprehensive and trauma and other medical emergency management is done at the ward without referring the patients to speciality doctors. All investigations right from blood investigation, x-ray, ultra sound scan and CT scan are available under one roof and the entire diagnosis can be carried out within 30 to 60 minutes,” he said.

Under the Innuyir Kappom - Nammai Kaakkum 48 scheme, all emergency care for anyone is done without demanding identity card. "We have done 2,400 cases in Theni Government Medical College Hospital since November 2021. We stand fifth among all the government hospitals in the State," he said.

On an average 30 trauma cases are admitted to the Theni hospital. ‘We refer only one or two cases to Government Rajaji Hospital as we do not have MRI scan,’ he said.