E-Paper
Delhi govt to recruit medical and nursing students to staff Covid hospitals
New Delhi
New Delhi
The Delhi government has decided to hire final-year students of post-graduate medical courses such as MD/MS and DNB, as well as final year under-graduate and post-graduate nursing students, to staff the additional intensive care unit (ICU) beds being created in state government-run hospitals.
The students would be hired for a period of six months and would be paid an honorarium, the Delhi government said following a meeting of the medical superintendent of Covid-19 hospitals and top health officials with acting health minister Manish Sisodia.
The meeting was held to discuss plans to increase ICU infrastructure in view of the rising number of cases of coronavirus disease (Covid-19) in the city.
Currently, there are 706 ventilator beds in both government and private hospitals, of which 64% are already occupied, according to data on the ‘Delhi Corona’ app.
HT had in its June 17 report pointed out that the government was working on increasing bed strength but the shortage of manpower was a challenge.
Dr Mahesh Verma, vice-chancellor of Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, with which most of the students are affiliated, has been tasked with recruitment and deployment of the required number of students over the next four days. He has been asked to recommend the stipend to be paid.
The ICU staff shortage was pointed out as the main reason for not being able to ramp up the capacity. Currently, there are 173 ventilator beds in the Delhi-government run hospitals.
HT had earlier reported that the Delhi government would be receiving 200 additional ventilators from the central government. In addition to that, the state government plans to buy 300 more ventilators.
The government has also purchased 2,000 oxygen concentrators for patients with moderate illness. The machine selectively removes nitrogen from the ambient air to concentrate it to 93/5 oxygen and provides it to the patient at about 5lts/minute speed.
“Most of the existing beds in the hospital currently have oxygen supply for the patients, and in the next 10 days, and all the other beds will have the oxygen supply attached to them in a few days. The bed capacity, as well as all the infrastructure and manpower assistance, will be given to all the hospitals as and when required by them. The Delhi government has directed to increase the ICU bed capacity in all the big dedicated Covid-19 hospitals,” said Sisodia after the meeting.
Dr SK Sarin, who was part of the initial five-member expert committee constituted in March to look at increasing Delhi’s capacity to handle Covid-19 cases, said, “We should think of out-of-the-way solutions to address this pandemic. With a few out-of-the-box ideas, we can enhance the existing capacity of ICU beds in the hospitals. We should also think how we can recruit new manpower including health professionals and experts in these hospitals.”
The question on staffing issues for the makeshift hospitals in stadiums and banquet halls still remains.
