After 2 yrs, St George Hospital to turn into non-Covid facility
The state-run St George Hospital, which has 460 beds, will soon become a non-Covid facility once again after treating Covid patients for two years. Since the pandemic started in 2020, the hospital has treated more than 6,000 Covid patients.
Dr Akash Khobragade, the medical superintendent of the hospital, said that over the last month there haven’t been any patients who need hospitalisation, following which they planned to convert it into a non-Covid facility. However, they will reserve one ICU and general ward to treat Covid patients.
“We were waiting for official permission from the state government to resume all non-Covid work at the hospital, which might be anytime this week. We have treated 6,627 Covid patients so far and the last three patients have also been discharged,” he said.
Khobragade said they had converted three OPDs into ICU beds, which have now been rearranged like before. Prior to the pandemic, it was a 10-bedded ICU ward which will now be increased to 20beds. The hospital had reduced 460 beds to 320 during the pandemic to meet the social distancing norms while treating Covid patients. Moreover, the hospital used to see over 800 patients in the outpatient department (OPD) prior to the pandemic. Moreover, currently, the hospital has 107 ventilators which will now be divided between JJ Hospital, GT Hospital and Cama and Albless Maternity Hospital.
Meanwhile, the hospital authorities are also coming up with new facilities for the patients, such as starting a 12bed kidney dialysis unit for patients who need dialysis twice or thrice a week.
“There are many plans in the pipeline for the benefit of the patients but it still needs to be drawn up in detail,” said a doctor. “For now, we are focusing on having a dialysis unit at the hospital so that patients do not have to run from one hospital to another for the procedure. During the pandemic, we set up a dialysis unit for Covid patients. So starting it will be a boon for patients who need regular dialysis.”