DRDO gets ready to set up two Covid-19 hosps on war footing
LUCKNOW: The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) will set up two temporary Covid-19 hospitals in the state capital — a 500bed facility at Awadh Shilp Gram on Shaheed Path and a 1,000-bed treatment centre at Defence Expo Site in Vrindavan Yojana.
Officials engaged in the entire exercise said the temporary hospital at Awadh Shilp Gram was expected to offer free of cost services to Covid-19 patients and it was likely to become operational by Friday.
As for the other hospital, defence minister Rajnath Singh’s Lok Sabha representative Diwakar Tripathi said, “The DRDO team will take 12 days in setting up this temporary hospital after which it will become operational.”
The hospitals are the initiative of the defence minister to give relief to the people in Lucknow, also his parliamentary constituency, that witnessed over 38,000 coronavirus infection cases in the last 10 days.
On Sunday, a team of DRDO’s Delhi and Lucknow-based offi
cials, accompanied by district administration authorities, inspected the Awadh Shilp Gram site and finalised it.
“Initially, Haj House and Golden Blossom were the sites on which we zeroed in. However, after a series of inspections and feasibility checks, we found Awadh Shilp Gram more suitable for setting up a temporary Covid hospital,” said a senior DRDO official, who was also part of the team that visited Awadh Shilp Gram on Sunday.
The DRDO team also inspected the Defence Expo Site to do a feasibility check. “The site was found perfect for setting up a hospital. The location is just 1km away from Awadh Shilp Gram and is also near SGPGI Covid hospital,” an official with the district administration said.
Of the total beds, 300 would serve as the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at Awadh Shilp Gram. They would be equipped with ventilators, liquid oxygen connectivity and other life-saving logistics, an official with DRDO said. Officials said that they had finalised two halls and one big exhibition hall of Awadh Shilp Gram for the hospital.
“It will be as per WHO guidelines, we are specialised in setting up ICU beds, will get ventilator beds and be well equipped with oxygen supply. The hospital would be centrally air conditioned. The air would enter from one side and will be released from the other end,” said Dr Narendra Kumar Arya, director of the Directorate of Public Interface (DPI). He said the hospital would be similar to what DRDO established in Delhi and Patna in times of the pandemic.
DRDO officials said the temporary hospital at the Defence Expo site would have all facilities to tackle even the worst Covid case. As per the DRDO’s plan, the hospital would be a unique, centrally air-conditioned medical facility spread in over 20,000 square metre area. It will comprise an ICU hangar that will have some 250 beds equipped with monitoring equipment, ventilators and oxygen supply.
The wards would be connected via an internal pathway. There will be a well-defined area on the premises for medical staff. The hospital will also have a separate dining and accommodation area for on-duty staff.
“The entire infrastructure would be built with negative-internal-pressure-gradient for safe contagion containment. The facility would be engineered using rapid fabrication technique based on the octanorm (customizable system) module,” a DRDO official said.
In addition, the hospital will have a separate reception-cumpatient admission block, medical block, a pharmacy and a laboratory, duty doctors and nurses’ accommodations and four modular patient blocks each having 250 beds.
The corridor network of the hospital has been designed to keep patients’ movement separate from the movement of doctors and other staff. Sanitisation facilities and toilets will be between the blocks for easy access to patients and facility personnel. The patients’ block will be self-sufficient with facilities for both patients and medical care staff. Patient facilities include oxygen supply to each bed , X-Ray, electrocardiogram (ECG), haematological test facilities, ventilators, Covid test labs, wheelchairs, stretchers and other medical equipment.