SSCI likely to start Covid facility within a week
LUCKNOW : At a time when almost all hospitals are bursting at the seams with the influx of Covid patients and there is a scarcity of beds, residents wonder why institutions like the Lucknow Super Specialty Cancer Institute and Hospital (SSCI) be converted into a full scale Covid hospital. The work of converting a portion of the cancer hospital into a Covid facility began on April 12 but till now not even a single bed is occupied.
Somnath Kashyap, president of NGO Badlav (working for Covid patients) said, “Sometimes it is the question of will power rather than having facilities in hand. The cancer hospital started the process of converting a building into a Covid hospital on April 12 but today no one knows how much has been done.”
Surya Vikram Singh, a resident of Hazratganj, is trying to get his mother admitted to a city hospital for Covid treatment but has not been able to get a bed for her. “I wonder why facilities like Lucknow Cancer Institute which have hundreds of beds available are not being used for treatment of Covid patients. Why don’t’ the authorities feel the pain of the common man?”
However, the SSCI authorities have their own take on the issue. Director, Lucknow Super Specialty Cancer Institute and Hospital (SSCI) professor Shalin Kumar said, “We were told to prepare the hospital for Covid care on April 12 and we did it in a short time. Our staff, doctors, nurses and paramedical staff are ready for the new challenge and within a week we hope to start services with a limited number of beds (20). This would be gradually increased to 100 within a month. One must understand that our core competency is cancer, not Covid. We are going out of the way to provide Covid treatment. We have to start all this facility in a new building. We are working on it and admission of patients will start within a week. As you know we are not a medical college hospital but a cancer specific institute, where patients are vulnerable to any kind of infection. Covid is an infection which wreaks havoc on patients with co-morbidity, so we have to be extra cautious.”
He said, “We also have to plan the schedule of our faculty. Presently there are 24 faculty members, 15 residents, 48 nurses and 45 paramedical staff in the cancer hospital. But due to Covid we will have to spare our manpower and resources. Regarding facilities, the centralized oxygen supply system has been tested. The institute has 5,000 cylinders for centralized oxygen supply. We cannot start our facilities of oxygen, ICU, HDU and ventilators without testing.”
“The number of patients has already come down after the surge in corona cases. Earlier, we used to see 15 new and around 40 follow-up patients in our OPD daily. Around 65 beds were operational before the Covid surge but now the number of patients admitted has come down considerably,” he added.