E-Paper
No patient will be referred to Meerut without Covid-19 test, say health officials
Ghaziabad:
Ghaziabad:
The district health department has decided that it will not refer any non-Covid patients to the government hospital in Meerut without a Covid-19 test. Health officials said that if a patient turns positive for the virus, he/she will be treated at a Covid-dedicated hospital in Ghaziabad itself.
The decision comes after 27 Covid-19 related deaths of Ghaziabad have taken place at LLRM Medical College, Meerut, which is also an L3 category Covid hospital. Till June 22, the Ghaziabad district had reported a total of 49 Covid-19 related deaths.
“We have started referring only non-Covid patients to the Meerut medical college. These patients were earlier getting referred without testing, but now they will be tested for Covid-19 before any referral to Meerut. There have been cases where non-Covid patients got referred to Meerut and they tested Covid-19 positive there. Later, during the treatment they succumbed to medical conditions as a result of delays in early detection. Since Ghaziabad now has L1, L2 and L3 facilities, such patients will be referred to an appropriate hospital in case they test positive for Covid-19,” said Dr NK Gupta, chief medical officer, Ghaziabad.
“Further, the medical college at Meerut is also overburdened as it is receiving patients from other nearby districts of western UP,” he said.
Gupta said that for testing of such patients, the district has already started using True-Nat machine installed at Ghaziabad’s MMG Hospital.
“True-Nat machine gives result in one hour. It is basically a testing for Covid-19 negative. If the test result is negative, then it is confirmatory negative patient. If the test indicates mild, moderate or highly positive, then confirmatory test has to be taken up through the RT-PCR method and samples need to be sent to a lab. However, we have received 200 kits which can further help us get a confirmatory test in one hour,” CMO said.
At present, the Ghaziabad district has two smaller L1 hospitals at Sahibabad (with 76 beds) and Nandgram (60 beds), while Sanjay Nagar Combined District Hospital (100-bedded) is functioning as L2 category hospital. Besides, there is a 400-bed L3 facility at Santosh Medical College.
Meanwhile, to enhance the testing capabilities, state officials said that they will be holding a training session for staff members of six districts of western UP, including Ghaziabad and Noida, for antigen testing.
“The antigen testing will soon start in six districts of Meerut division, including Ghaziabad and Gautam Budh Nagar,” said Awanish Awasthi, UP’s additional chief secretary (home).
Further, in order to bridge the gap of rising number of Covid-19 cases and short availability of L1 category beds in Ghaziabad, the health officials on Tuesday inspected the ongoing furnishing works at Divyajyoti College at Niwari which is proposed to be made operational by Wednesday.
“It is proposed for 250 beds. Also, there is a building near the college where we can come up with 150 more beds. So, it has potential to become 400-bed L1 facility and will suffice for another 15 days in wake of rising number of cases. Once it gets started, we will close down 60-bed L1 hospital at Nandgram and shift L1 patients to Niwari. The same team of health care staff will also be shifted to Niwari and we have made arrangements for their stay,” CMO added.
