Amid surge in cases, government hosps upscale Covid infrastructure
KOLKATA: Various government hospitals which were earlier dedicated for Covid treatment and later freed up their Covid beds as the daily infection subsided following the third wave is now again set to devote Covid beds and strengthen infrastructure for treating Covid patients.
Many state run hospitals are in the process of increasing Covid beds in the wake of a sudden rise in daily infection.
State health department is also allocating funds to various government hospitals to boost infrastructure.
The number of dedicated Covid beds is being increased in various hospitals as a precautionary measure to combat the situation if there is any further surge in Bengal.
Besides general beds, CCU beds and HDU beds are also getting an increase. Most of these hospitals which ran a dedicated Covid facility had freed up all their Covid beds around 4 months ago as the daily infection went below 20.
An emphasis has been given on the up-gradation of infrastructure in laboratory and diagnostic facilities of government hospitals keeping in mind the rising number of
Covid cases.
According to health department sources, works for installation of medical gas pipelines are going on at the government hospitals which had earlier served as dedicated Covid hospitals.
These hospitals will again open dedicated services if the
» An emphasis has been given on the up-gradation of infrastructure in laboratory and diagnostic facilities of government hospitals keeping in mind the rising number of Covid cases
situation demands so, a senior health department official said.
State health department has recently allotted a fund of Rs 1.17 crore for increasing ICU beds at Barasat District Hospital and Bongaon Sub-divisional hospital in North 24-Parganas.
Kolkata, North 24-Parganas, South 24-Parganas, Hooghly and Howrah reported the maximum number of daily cases during the previous Covid waves.
Among all these districts, Kolkata and North 24-Parganas had always the highest contributor of Covid cases. Now, the daily Covid cases are the highest in Kolkata and North 24-Parganas.
State health department has also spent around Rs 11 lakh for the Covid ward at the Sambhunath Pandit Hospital. Contractual workers are being deployed to handle if there is any surge.
This hospital was developed as a Covid hospital as an annex building of the SSKM Hospital. Sambhunath Pandit Hospital, MR Bangur Hospital in Kolkata catered to the huge number of Covid patients during the past waves.
Covid infrastructure is getting a new boost in all these hospitals which will be ready to handle any unforeseen situation.
Health department will allot more funds for enhancing of Covid infrastructure in state run hospitals in a phased manner, said the senior official.