With O2 plants, paediatric care, city putting infra in place for third wave

Ludhiana: The health authorities are trying to put in place required infrastructure in case the third wave of Covid hits the district. They are also focusing on paediatric care, as it was being said that the next wave may affect children more.
District epidemiologist Dr Ramesh Bhagat said they were arranging adequate facilities before the probable third wave and they already have a system in place for sufficient beds (both for moderate L2 and severe L3 cases) and oxygen plants were being set up at various hospitals.
“We had to close the L2 facility at Meritorious School as cases fell, but we can open it if there is a surge. We can have more than 200 beds there. Also, we can have 50 L2 beds at Jawaddi community health centre (CHC) and 100 L2 beds at Mother and Child Hospital (MCH), Vardhman. We can have 30 L2 beds at sub-divisional hospital (SDH) in Raikot and have sent a proposal for it, besides we can set up 30 beds at Samrala SDH, 30 L2 beds at Jagraon SDH, 50 at Covid care centre at Rara Sahib and 50 L2 beds at Khanna SDH,” said the health officer. He added that oxygen plants were coming up at many government hospitals of the district.
Raikot SDM Himanshu Gupta, who is monitoring the setting up of oxygen plants in hospitals, said that two 1,000 LPM (litre per minute) plants were coming up at civil hospital and ESI hospital in Ludhiana, funds for which were being sent by the Central government and peripheral expenditure, including making of base of plant, DG set and electricity connection, was being done by the Punjab government from state disaster relief fund. He said four plants were being installed through donations: 250 LPM plant at Raikot SDH, 100 LPM at Vardhman MCH, 100 LPM at Samrala SDH and 500 LPM at a private hospital in Ludhiana. The private hospital plant would be funded by the CII.
“We have also requested the state government for a plant at Covid care centre in Rara Sahib and Khanna SDH. Hopefully, the oxygen plant at Raikot SDH will be completed by July 15 and others are expected to be installed by July 31,” said the officer. “These plants use natural air as per the latest technology which is different from oxygen cylinders and liquid medical oxygen being used earlier,” he added.
As there are apprehensions that children may be vulnerable in the third wave, required facilities are being set up at the civil hospital.
“We have a 700 LPM oxygen plant as of now and a 1,000 LPM plant is coming up at the civil hospital. We also have 170 beds, of which 154 are L2 and the remaining L3. Of these, we have earmarked 24 beds in the isolation facility at the civil hospital and we have two beds with paediatric ventilators for severe patients. We are also upgrading facilities for children who come with multisystem inflammatory syndrome after four to six weeks of recovering from Covid and have made an eight-bed ICU for them at Mother and Child Hospital,” said Covid care in-charge at civil hospital Dr Hatinder Kaur.
“During the second wave, we were not prepared, so there were many deaths. The authorities should ensure that before the probable third wave, there are adequate beds, trained staff and oxygen supply. They should especially check how many trained paediatricians are there, as children are being considered vulnerable in the next wave,” said Ludhiana IMA president Dr Saroj Aggarwal.
Training for paediatric care
An official at a private hospital and medical college said they were training healthcare workers, including doctors from government hospitals, to handle paediatric Covid patients ahead of the probable third wave.