TIRUNELVELI
Railway officials here have started working on converting 14 second class sleeper coaches into special wards for treating the COVID – 19 patients in a bid to help the district administration if all the beds in Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital and the designated private hospitals are exhausted with sudden huge arrival of the patients with the dreaded viral infection.
Even though 600 beds in Tirunelveli Medical College Hospital have been kept ready for the COVID – 19 positive patients and three private hospitals here have been approved by the State Government for treating the patients with the viral infection, the sleeper coaches in the pit line of Tirunelveli Railway Junction are being converted as special wards.
While the lower and the upper berths of these coaches are being retained, the middle berths are being removed. Each coach will have three toilets including a western toilet and a bathroom. A separate enclosure created in each coach will have ‘nurses counter’ with medicines and other materials required for the treatment of the patients.
“Fifteen patients can be accommodated in each coach. Only after the higher-ups, doctors from our medical wing, and the representatives of the district administration inspected these customised coaches, it will be ready for receiving the patients,” said the sources here.