Delhi government to add 990 ventilator beds in 15 hospitals, makeshift facilities

Of the 990, the highest allocation of 150 ventilators was for the newly constructed Indira Gandhi hospital in Dwarka.

In a bid to scale up intensive care unit (ICU) facilities in the city, the Delhi government has procured 990 portable ventilators for fifteen hospitals and makeshift facilities, which have been directed to install immediately, HT has learnt.

File photo: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. (ANI)

Of the 990, the highest allocation of 150 ventilators was for the newly constructed Indira Gandhi hospital in Dwarka that the Delhi government is currently operationalizing for Covid-19 patients. The Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain had earlier said that the hospital will start with 500 oxygen beds for the patients with the viral infection.

“To augment medical resources, optimum utilisation of space is being done. 500 oxygen-bedded centre will be set up here by next week,” Delhi health minister Satyendar Jain said last Wednesday.

Two new hospitals that were operationalized last year for treating Covid-19 patients by the Delhi government in Burari and Ambedkar Nagar have also been allocated 80 ventilators each.

Other hospitals to receive 80 ventilators were Deen Dayal Upadhaya in Hari Nagar and Baba Saheb Ambedkar Hospital in Rohini.

The government allocated 80 ventilators each to makeshift facilities such as the Sardar Patel Covid Care Centre in Chattarpur, the extension of Burari hospital, and Sant Darshan centre.

Two hospitals of the Employees State Insurance Corporation in Okhla and Jhilmil were allocated 50 ventilators in total.

Currently, Delhi has 5,872 intensive care unit beds, not all of which have ventilators. Of these, 98.9% of the beds are occupied. The occupancy is likely to reduce over the week as the number of cases in the city has started going down.