Pvt hosps, nursing homes topool staff for Covid facilities

Ghaziabad: To increase the number of Covid beds in the city, the district administration will ask private hospitals and nursing homes to dedicate a few establishments for the treatment of coronavirus patients, while the rest can continue with their usual work.
Officials said private hospitals and nursing homes will pool in their infrastructure, doctors and staff for running such facilities. However, the initiative will need some fine-tuning, they added. At present, there is no dedicated private Covid hospital in the city.
Officer on special duty, Dr Ved Prakash, who is also head of pulmonary and critical care medicine at King George’s Medical University, on Tuesday held a meeting with officials of Indian Medical Association, nursing homes, health department and the administration.
Dr Prakash said such hospitals will conduct tests and treat Covid patients. “This will reduce hardships faced by patients and minimise the lag in the golden hour of treatment,” he added.
Two private hospitals, Le Crest in Vasundhara and a 60-bed hospital in Vaishali, have been approached to provide paid Covid facilities. Chief medical officer NK Gupta said the hospitals are equipped with ICUs and can treat serious patients.
Laying stress on testing, Dr Prakash said TrueNat machines, mainly used for detection of drug-resistant tuberculosis, are being employed for testing in emergency cases.
Dr Gupta said there are 166 Covid beds in the L1 facility, while arrangements have been made for another 200. There are 100 beds in the L2 facility and 400 beds in the L3 facility.