Pune: Corona centre with ICU beds to come up in Baner

PUNE: The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) is starting a Covid-19 hospital in Baner. The facility will have oxygen plants and provision of liquid oxygen tank.
There will be 212 beds at the hospital. Of the total, 150 will be oxygen-supported beds while the remaining 62 beds will be in the intensive care unit (ICU). Four small oxygen plants of 1,000 litre, per minute, capacity will be started in addition to a liquid oxygen tank. The hospital is expected to start by next month.
This is the second dedicated Covid-19 treatment facility coming up in Baner. The first facility was commissioned by the civic body last year in August. It is currently running at full capacity with over 330 beds. The Baner facility was the first hospital which was restarted at full capacity during the recent spike in Covid-19 cases.
Mayor Muralidhar Mohol said that efforts are on to increase bed capacity and oxygen supply to meet the increasing demand. “The commissioning of new facility in Baner is part of the efforts being taken since the last month. We have already decided to allocate Rs 5 crore for the new facility besides using corporate social responsibility contributions. Steps are being taken to start the facility at the earliest. The infrastructural work has been expedited,” he said.
Mohol added that setting up of oxygen plants and liquid oxygen tank will help meet the oxygen demand. The civic body is also in the process of commissioning oxygen plants at two other PMC-run hospitals, he said.
Balewadi health hub should function at full capacity: Sena leaders
Leaders from Shiv Sena recently appealed to chief minister Uddhav Thackeray to augment Covid-19 facilities in the city, including the facility at Balewadi. The leaders, including Chandrakant Mokate, Gajanan Tharkude and Prashant Badhe, said that steps have been taken to augment Covid-19 treatment facilities. Tharkude said that a large number of patients can be treated if the Balewadi facility is made operational.