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3rd wave: With kids expected to be at risk, Jammu hospital ramps up facilities
In the new paediatric block, which has three wards with 46 beds each, the hospital management plans to have 20 intensive care unit Covid beds in each ward.
With experts predicting a third wave of the coronavirus pandemic, which may target kids and teenagers, Shri Maharaja Gulab Singh Hospital — the only children’s hospital in Jammu city that caters to all 10 districts of the division — has started putting its house in order to be better prepared to deal with any exigency.
In the new paediatric block, which has three wards with 46 beds each, the hospital management plans to have 20 intensive care unit (ICU) Covid beds in each ward.
SMGS Hospital medical superintendent Dr Dara Singh said, “All machinery has arrived and civil and mechanical work has begun. Beds in all paediatrics wards are being connected with high-flow oxygen. Similarly, 20 intensive care unit (ICU) beds with ventilators will be installed.”
“Being a paediatric hospital, we are preparing ourselves for the possibility that the third may affect children,” he said.
“We have apprised authorities of our manpower requirement. For starters, we have asked for 50 nurses, 50 nursing orderlies and 25 sweepers. If the workload increases, manpower will be increased accordingly,” said Singh.
Oxygen plant sanctioned
“The hospital already has a 500 LPM oxygen generation plant. However, authorities have also sanctioned a new oxygen plant of 3,000 LPM ( litres per minute) to augment the supply. It will be installed within a week or two,” said Dr Singh.
A room has been prepared for the plant its flooring fixed. The plant will have an independent transformer and power setup so that supply is not interrupted.
Amid the pandemic, paediatrics and gynaecology wards have been combined and each bed is being connected with high-flow oxygen.
Financial commissioner, health and medical education, Atal Dulloo has asked executing agencies to expedite the work and complete it at the earliest.
Dr Singh said Wards 7 and 8, with a combined capacity of 53 beds, have already been dedicated to Covid patients, who are being referred from triage facilities.
140 paediatric beds can be added
“The 46 bedded Ward 19 has already been identified for paediatric Covid patients and we can augment it 140 additional beds, if required,” he said. As of now the hospital has four ICU wards with 16 ventilators. At present, paediatric Covid patients are being treated at MCH Gandhi Nagar Hospital.
