Chief minister Suvendu Adhikari drafts SSKM Hospital upgrade: 250 more beds before puja
Times of India | 10 July 2026
Kolkata: The state-run SSKM Hospital is expected to get more beds, some of them even before Durga Puja, to tackle the patient rush. Chief minister Suvendu Adhikari also indicated at increasing the capacity at the state-run hospital’s Trauma Care Centre, apart from adding facilities, including beds, to burns and intensive care units, among others.
“We are making arrangements to add 250 beds to SSKM before puja,” said Adhikari during a surprise visit to Swasthya Bhawan on Thursday.
SSKM currently has around 3,300 functional beds, 2,400 in the main campus and the rest at the annex units, such as Sambhunath Pandit Hospital and Kolkata Police Hospital. The daily footfall at the hospital OPDs, apart from the emergency ward, crosses 10,000 on most days. “The Trauma Care Centre can handle only about 50 to 100 patients at a time, but we should have a centre that can provide primary treatment to at least 250 people within minutes in case of a major disaster,” the CM said, pointing at the Taratala building collapse, from where all the injured were taken to this state-run hospital for treatment.
Being the only Level 1 trauma care centre in Bengal, the SSKM’s unit has advanced facilities to tackle victims of any disaster. A doctor said all the OTs and diagnostic services at the 244-bed centre stayed open round the clock with the availability of senior faculty members but an enhanced manpower was needed for this facility.
The CM conceded that given the constant rush of patients here, a person might have to wait for 10 days for a surgical procedure because of limited capacity. He said the number of ICU beds would be increased from the current 112 to at least 200 and even those in the burns unit would be raised from the existing figure of 60.
“The integrated control room will take some more time to become fully functional. As of today, around 15 hospitals have been connected with the control room. I have given some suggestions to the health minister and the chief secretary. I have told them to bring this down to the subdivision level by July 30 and to monitor everything, up to the kitchen,” said Adhikari.