State team reviews facilities at Surat hospitals

Surat: With Covid-19 cases in Surat crossing the 3,000-mark, the state principal health secretary Jayanti Ravi and her team visited the city on Saturday to assess the ground situation. Ravi emphasised on increasing screening and surveillance in Surat city and district areas and urged people to immediately visit the hospitals if they develop Covid-19 like symptoms and help prevent aggravation of the infection.
Ravi along with state health commissioner Jay Prakash Shivhare also visited the New Civil Hospital (NCH) and the Surat Municipal Corporation (SMC) run SMIMER hospital to review the preparedness and held discussions with the doctors there. A review meeting was also organised with the top officials of the district collectorate and the Surat Municipal Corproation (SMC).
Talking with media persons, Ravi said, “The administration is fully prepared for any situation. If there are any gaps, the government will provide all possible help.”
“There is a trend of the increasing Covid-19 cases in the urban areas. To step up fight against the virus, we reviewed the preparedness at the New Civil Hopsital (NCH) regarding the required beds, ventilators, bipap, oxygen, medicines and above all the trained staff of doctors and nurses,” said Ravi.
Asked about revising the price cap for Covid-19 tests in private labs after Supreme Court order, Ravi said, “We are still awaiting orders from the central government regarding the private lab charges. Once it is done, we will revise the prices after discussing with the private labs.”
“We have come for the review meeting with the officials in Surat. We are also contacting the private hospitals in Surat to be prepared for the worse. Though we don’t wish to use the private hospitals for Covid, but if the cases would rise we will need their facilities,” she added.
Ravi also talked of accelerating the surveillance in the coming days.