5 more govt hospitals to fight Covid-19

Lok Nayak, Deen Dayal Upadhyay, Guru Teg Bahadur, Rajiv Gandhi super speciality, and Baba Saheb Ambedkar hospitals have started working on moving their non-Covid patients to other hospitals, said to a Delhi government order issued on Tuesday.

With a surge in the number of infection cases likely in the city after health officials uncovered the clustering at Nizamuddin, the government has decided to convert five of its tertiary care hospitals to dedicated Covid-19 centres.

Delhi government’s biggest tertiary care centre Lok Nayak hospital, along with government’s only superspeciality hospital GB Pant on the same campus, are preparing to become Covid-19 hospitals. (Yogendra Kumar/HT photo. Image for representational purpose)

This will earmark at least 5,850 beds for the management of Covid-19 patients in Delhi, officials said.

Lok Nayak, Deen Dayal Upadhyay, Guru Teg Bahadur, Rajiv Gandhi super speciality, and Baba Saheb Ambedkar hospitals have started working on moving their non-Covid patients to other hospitals, said to a Delhi government order issued on Tuesday.

Another 200 bed in Guru Nanak Eye Centre in Lok Nayak campus may also be added if needed.

On Tuesday, 23 more people tested positive for Covid-19 in the city, taking the total up to 120. The test reports of none of the people evacuated from the Nizamuddin markaz had come back on Tuesday and the number of people who tested positive from the area remained at 24. Another person who had tested positive on Saturday had visited the dargah.

The reports of 441 people from the markaz, who showed symptoms of the virus, is awaited.

The Delhi government is still in the process of tracing 18 other people who tested positive at private laboratories. The government is trying to trace the history of all the 18.

Delhi government’s biggest tertiary care centre Lok Nayak hospital, along with government’s only superspeciality hospital GB Pant on the same campus, are preparing to become Covid-19 hospitals.

“Any patient that can be discharged, will be. For those who still need hospitalisation, they will be moved to other Delhi government hospitals or even to a private hospital, if need be,” said Dr JC Passey, medical director of Lok Nayak campus.

The hospital is also in the process of moving its out-patient clinic to the separate orthopaedics block and the surgical emergency to Sushruta Trauma centre in Civil Lines. “We are in the process of converting the entire 2,700 bed facility for Covid-19,” said Dr Passey. The government is also exploring the option of opening up a newly constructed hospital in Burari with 1,000 beds – of which 10 -15% will have ventilators.