400-bed DMCH block to be ready by Dussehra: Tejashwi

The 400-bed upcoming surgical block of the Darbhanga Medical College Hospital (DMCH) will be inaugurated before Dussehra (October 24) this year, Bihar’s deputy chief minister Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, who also holds the health portfolio, said at a programme on the world blood donor day on Wednesday.

The sod-turning ceremony for the development of 2,100-bed medical college and hospital building, with residential campus, will also be done the same day, he said.

The Bihar cabinet had on Tuesday approved ₹2,546 crore for the 2,100-bed medical college hospital.

The DMCH currently has 1,030 beds.

The decision to increase the number of beds at the DMCH comes a fortnight after the Centre rejected the state’s offer for a new site for the proposed AIIMS-Darbhanga at Ekmi-Shobhan bypass on the town’s outskirts.

“The development of DMCH will not only benefit the locals, but also those residing in the Seemanchal and the Kosi belt, and Nepal,” the deputy chief minister said.

Yadav also inaugurated virtually the first blood centre at Supaul in the district hospital, taking the number of blood centres in the state to 112, of which 62 were private, 50 under public sector and six of the Indian Red Cross Society. With this, all 38 districts of the state now have a blood centre each.

Yadav expressed happiness that the number of people who donated blood four times or more in a year had increased from one in 2017-18 to 290 in 2022-23 (April 1, 2022 to April 30, 2023).

Munger’s Tripurari Kumar Mishra, with six donations last year, and BK Choudhary from the CID, who had so far donated blood on 37 occasions, were among the 290 blood donors Yadav felicitated.

Later, Yadav and Pratyaya Amrit, additional chief secretary (ACS), health, also donated blood at the venue to encourage more blood donations.