Beds added: Next challenge to find health workers
NEW DELHI: As the Delhi government plans to dramatically ramp up its healthcare infrastructure in light of the fast-increasing COVID-19 cases in the Capital, the next big challenge that Delhi faces has to do with whether and how trained and skilled doctors, medical professionals, nurses and healthcare workers will be sourced from.
With plans to add 20,000 beds in the next one week and a 10,000 bedded COVID-19 facility coming up at the South Delhi campus of spiritual organisation Radha Soami Satsang Beas on the Delhi-haryana border, the Delhi government and the Centre will now have to quickly make sure arrangments can be made to man these beds and care for the patients who will be occupying them.
This COVID-19 facility, which will be 1,700 feet long and 700 feet wide, will have 200 enclosures with 50 beds each, said Vikas Sethi, secretary of Radha Soami Satsang Beas, Bhati Mines. The makeshift hospital will be the largest such facility in the city so far. The work is expected to be completed by the end of June, he said. As per these estimates, just this COVID-19 facility will require at the very least, 800 healthcare workers, including doctors, nurses and cleaners. The district magistrate said a doctor, two nurses and a cleaner would be needed per enclosure. There is a building on the campus that can be used for accommodating doctors, nurses, and paramedical staff, he added. Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal on Sunday inspected the site of the proposed 10,000-bed makeshift hospital for COVID19 patients along with a team of officials, including South Delhi District Magistrate B M Mishra, and took stock of the available facilities, an official said.
Baijal said the administration will further ramp up medical infrastructure to deal with the coronavirus pandemic and directed the officials to build the makeshift hospital at the earliest, one official said.