Railway hospital to ramp up Covid facilities

BENGALURU: The Railway Hospital a designated Covid Care Centre located behind the KSR Railway Station is getting a major upgrade as Covid cases rise. Two oxygen storage tanks are in the process of being set up.

Divisional Railway Manager of Bengaluru, Ashok Kumar Verma, said, “We have tested nearly 5,000 of our staffers and 1,000 have tested positive. Of them, 210 are active cases with 85 in the Railway Hospital and the rest in home isolation.”There have been 25 deaths so far in the Bengaluru Division due to Covid-19. “We had 32 staffers testing positive at the Krishnarajapuram loco shed after we carried out tests,” the DRM added.

The Railway Hospital CCC now has 40 ward beds, 14 ICU beds, 24/7 ambulance services, radiology and laboratory services. A critical care team of doctors for ICU patients, apart from nurses, lab technicians and radiologists, were hired recently on contract.

A railway source said that the hospital presently uses oxygen cylinders for its patients and they had sufficient stock. “An oxygen plant, which will supply to our storage tanks, will be readied within a month’s time. All our ICU beds are occupied presently,” he said.

As of October 11, South Western Railway has reported 95 deaths of serving and retired staffers and their families in Hubballi, Mysuru and Bengaluru divisions, while the total number of Covid cases was 2,302, of which 265 are still active, as per the bulletin released by the Railway Zone on Sunday.