Mangaluru: Wenlock Hospital ready for its role to take Covid-19 pandemic head on

Jaideep Shenoy | TNN | Apr 7, 2020, 19:20 IST

Wenlock Hospital

MANGALURU: Upbeat with discharge of four out of dozen Covid-19 positive patients on Monday, Dakshina Kannada district administration is not letting its guard down. To the contrary, it has only upped its preparedness to meet any unforeseen exigency that the global pandemic may bring to its doorsteps. The new super speciality block at district Wenlock Hospital has been fully prepped to meet this challenge with various agencies working in tandem.
Dr Sadashiva, district surgeon and superintendent, Wenlock Hospital who gave a rundown of this preparedness to media said protocols mandated by WHO and ministry of health and family welfare in meeting this pandemic have been met in developing this exclusive Covid-19 facility for a district that has been declared a hotspot. Three floors of this super specialty block have been readied with 227 beds including ICU to deal with possible outbreak, he said.
Aiding him in this task is John Thomas Ramapuram, medical superintendent, KMC Hospital, Attavar and his team from internal/general medicine. Dr Ramapuram said the facility set up in the super speciality block is the best that can be given to patients, in terms of treatment and care and in present circumstances. A team of 230 nursing staff from KMC, government nursing staff and those under NHM are on hand to assist the doctors in the task.
With the Covid19 flow presently under the thumb and lodged at adjacent AYUSH block on the Wenlock Hospital premises, Dr Sadashiva said patients suspected to be affected with Covid19 and positive patients are housed on different floors in individual rooms. We have followed the same in super speciality block with 3rd floor with 79 beds for Covid19 suspect cases, second floor with 99 beds for positive cases and first floor with 49 beds for critical patients.
The authorities also have also set up 22 other high dependency units (HDU) including 10 in the old block of Wenlock Hospital, 10 in regional advanced paediatric care centre and two paediatric ICUs. Whole system of processing patients from the time one comes to the hospital to their discharge has been mapped with each person assigned a specific role to ensure that the district gains the upper hand in its fight against the pandemic, Dr Sadashiva said.