Srinagar: Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha on Wednesday inaugurated a 500-bed Covid hospital, established by Defence Research and Development Organisation’s (DRDO) at Khonmoh here.
After creating a makeshift hospital in Jammu, this is the second 500-bed hospital established by the DRDO in the union territory in the last 17 days.
Housing all the requisite modern facilities, the centrally air-conditioned facility has the capacity for 375 beds with 24-hour oxygen connectivity and 125 ICU beds, out of which 25 are reserved for children, an official press release informed.
It said a 10-bed triage area has also been built in 100 square metres.
The facility will fully start its operations once the trial-run is complete.
“My deepest gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh for providing the necessary assistance and interventions in augmenting healthcare and medical facilities across J&K,” the LG said.
He noted that it was due to the Prime Minister’s personal intervention that J&K witnessed such large-scale capacity enhancement of the medical infrastructure.
The LG also lauded the DRDO for playing a key role in India’s fight against COVID-19.
“I acknowledge the hard work of DRDO officials, who have completed both the hospitals in a short span of time, adding 1000 additional beds to serve the people in Jammu and Kashmir,” Sinha added.
Recently, the UT received 16 oxygen generation plants from Europe in a short span of three weeks.
Speaking on the government’s initiatives for transforming J&K’s health system in view of Covid pandemic, the LG remarked that “our strategy has been to implement a host of interventions in response to the evolving situations and then quantifying the impact of those initiatives in providing relief to the patients and strengthening the overall healthcare delivery system.
“Some notable interventions include continuous augmentation of ICU and oxygen supported beds, deployment of former medical staff and fast-track deployment of newly qualified staff, decentralization of health system through Panchayat Covid-care centres and starting an accelerated vaccination drive,” he said.
The LG also observed that J&K now has a greater capacity to treat all Covid-19 and other patients. “Taking timely decisions to increase hospital capacity in response to the pandemic has led to better management of patients,” he added.
The LG also thanked and congratulated all the PRI representatives, government officers, health department, police and security forces for continuously working in this pandemic.
“With the active participation of all of you, we have handled the situation of Corona in J&K in a better way,” he added.
The LG also took a round of the various sections of the facility and enquired about the Covid-care facilities to be extended to the patients including diagnostic facilities, medical equipment, oxygen supply, doctors, paramedics and other healthcare facilities.
Adhering to the directions of the LG for developing specialized critical care for infants and children, a 25-bedded Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) has been established in the facility.
Pertinently, on May 30, the LG had visited the site of this DRDO’s Covid hospital and passed specific direction for the early completion of the facility.
