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Chandigarh begins health infra upgrade with ₹5.6-crore central funds
Funds have been sanctioned to Chandigarh under Centre’s Emergency Response and Health System Preparedness Package to prepare for third Covid wave
Amid the possibility of a third Covid wave, the UT health department has started ramping up medical services and facilities at government healthcare institutions, as approved by the central government under the Emergency Response and Health System Preparedness Package (ECRP-II package).
Under the scheme, the UT health department was sanctioned ₹5.6 crore by the Centre in August this year, of which ₹3.61 crore are dedicated for ramping up health infrastructure with focus on paediatric units, keeping in view the possibility of surge in infection among children.
For the implementation of other preparatory activities, ₹1.6 crore have been allocated for procurement of essential Covid-related drugs (like Tocilzumab and Enoxaparin injections) and diagnostics. Besides, ₹45 lakh have been specially allocated for IT hubs in hospitals to enhance tele-consultation. All the projects have to be completed before March 2022.
“We had proposed a list of projects for providing better facilities to residents of Chandigarh. With the funds sanctioned under the ECRP scheme, the UT health department has now started implementing the projects. After completing designs and engineering works, we have started floating tenders for construction of the paediatric units,” said Dr Amandeep Kang, director, health services, adding that the infrastructure will be made available before another surge.
“Orders are being placed for procurement of essential drugs and diagnostics for starting RT-PCR testing at Government Multi-Specialty Hospital (GMSH), Sector16,” added Dr Kang, who is set to retire on Thursday.
Major projects: IT-hub, paediatric unit
Under the IT-hub project, all health and wellness centres (HWCs) will be connected to civil hospitals for tele-consultation, which will further be linked with GMSH-16 and Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH), Sector 32.
These two hospitals will be linked to the paediatric department of the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER), which will provide consultation to patients and help doctors with referral cases.
This project will also help in linking details and medical conditions of each paediatric patient, so that help can be sought from PGIMER.
Meanwhile, a 32-bed dedicated paediatric ICU centre will come up at GMSH-16, which will have 12 ventilator beds and 20 beds with medical oxygen facility. The ICU centre will be built at the hospital’s vacant nursing hostel.
Further, proposals have been approved to set up 20 additional ICU beds, each at the two civil hospitals in Sector 22 and Manimajra. All these beds will have a medical oxygen facility.
