LN hospital patients get video calling facility

A help desk has been started at the Lok Nayak Hospital to help patients admitted to the Covid-19 wards make video calls to their loved ones.The facility was inaugurated

A help desk has been started at the Lok Nayak Hospital to help patients admitted to the Covid-19 wards make video calls to their loved ones.The facility was inaugurated by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday.

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To demonstrate how the video calling facility would help, Kejriwal went on to make video calls to a few patients and had a long interaction with them, during the course of which he sought to know if they were satisfied with the treatment and services they were being given.

One of those who received the call from Kejriwal was an IIT-Delhi student and he told the chief minister how many had contracted the viral disease while celebrating his birthday. He is currently in the intensive care unit (ICU) of the hospital.

The IITian went on to praise the doctors of LN Hospital and mentioned how well the doctors were treating elderly patients.

Kejriwal also spoke to an elderly woman and requested her to bless the doctors and nurses when her treatment is over and she is discharged from the hospital.

Sharing an image of his video interaction with the elderly woman, Kejriwal on Twitter said, “relatives of Corona patients admitted at Lok Nayak Hospital will now be able to speak to them”.

Kejriwal said that tablets have been installed in the Covid wards as well as at the help desk located outside the wards.

Kejriwal also lauded the hospital’s doctors. “All doctors here have worked really hard. You can imagine how tough it is to work in this heat while wearing full PPE (personal protective equipment) kits,” he said.

The need for a video calling facility was felt after many complained that they couldn’t talk to their critically ill relatives for days on end or get an update on their condition, a Delhi government spokesperson said.

The video calling facility will be offered with the help of 33 tablets, 31 of which have been placed in the Covid wards, and two at the help desk, Dr Suresh Kumar, the hospital’s medical director, said.

“Now, relatives visiting the hospital will be allowed 5-10 minutes of video interaction with their hospitalised kin. They can ask them about their health, their medicines, their clothing and anything else they want to know,” Kumar said.

Lok Nayak Hospital has the highest number of beds (2,000) among all Covid-designated hospitals in Delhi. The Delhi Corona app showed that 759 of these beds were occupied as of Thursday evening.