NO TIME TO PAUSE
BEST GOVERNMENT HOSPITAL COMBATING COVID-19
WINNER: Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital, Delhi
WHY IT WON: LNJP converted its entire premises into a large Covid hospital at the onset of the pandemic. During the second wave in May 2021, the hospital set up additional oxygen infrastructure. The ceaseless efforts took a toll; the hospital lost 13 doctors to the virus
ATTACHED TO THE renowned Maulana Azad Medical College (MAMC), the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan (LNJP) Hospital has been treating patients for over 44 years. The hospital grew out of a small health clinic that the British had established at the present site in 1932. Today, it is one of
Delhi’s largest public hospitals and, during the pandemic, has been the largest Covid-only facility in the national capital.
Recognising the need and urgency for Covid treatment facilities, LNJP converted its entire premises into a large Covid hospital at the onset of the pandemic. Aside from a special help desk to guide and monitor patients, it now also offers 2,500 isolation beds, 900 ICU beds and 500 ventilator-supported beds for Covid patients. During the second wave in May 2021, the hospital set up additional oxygen infrastructure— four plants are now installed on site, and work on a fifth is ongoing. LNJP now has a capacity for 56 MT oxygen every month. The hospital is also a part of the government vaccination programme, having given the first dose to over 40,000 people as of September 1, 2021.
During the pandemic, LNJP had its own private challenges; it lost 13 doctors to the virus and another 1,000 staff members were infected. However, this did not demoralise the team, and they continued their work without a break every day of the pandemic, with doctors and nurses working overtime, staying away for weeks from their families and, at times, even risking their own safety for the wellbeing of their patients.