West Bengal government facilities add Covid beds

KOLKATA: Under pressure for Covid beds, Medical College Hospital, Kolkata (MCHK) has increased its bed strength while NRS Medical College and Hospital (NRMCH) has decided to start a 110-bed Covid facility. The state-run medical college on APC Roy Road will be the second teaching medical institute in the city to start a Covid facility.
All the 500 Covid beds in MCHK were filled up on Tuesday. This was the first time that all beds were occupied at the state’s tertiary-level Covid hospital. As planned earlier, 100 more beds were added on Wednesday and 50 of them got filled up as well.
“The pressure is huge on MCHK due to the availability of multispecialty doctors. We have added 100 beds in the CB building to meet the rising demand. We have also scaled up the number of CCU beds from 38 to 82. There are 12 dedicated dialysis machines for Covid patients. We are getting 10 more ventilators,” said Nirmal Maji, MCHK Rogi Kalyan Samiti (RKS) chairman.
Since June 6, 1,356 patients have been treated and discharged at the hospital. So far, this is the only hospital that has a separate wing for Covid positive newborns and paediatric patients. It has also set up a quick response team to be operational round the clock to coordinate with doctors in the ward.
NRMCH, on the hand, has proposed to the state health department that it is ready to create a 110-bed Covid facility. Earlier, the hospital was keeping Covid suspects in its isolation ward and was shifting them to a Covid hospital once they tested positive. “Realizing the need, NRSMCH has volunteered to start the treatment of Covid patients. We have the go-ahead from the health department. We will start off with 110 beds. We should be able to start admitting patients in about seven days,” said Santanu Sen, RKS chairman at NRSMCH.
The entire chest building at the hospital now will be utilized for Covid treatment. Other government hospitals, too, are likely to be told to start treating Covid patients. “Currently, we have 120 beds for SARI patients. We are ready to start with 100 beds,” said Calcutta National Medical College Hospital medical superintendent and viceprincipal Sandip Ghosh.