Fadnavis suggests smaller COVID care facilities instead of Jumbo Hospital
   Date :22-Sep-2020

Fadnavis _1  H
 Radhakrishnan B, Municipal Commissioner, explaining as aspect during a presentation on COVID-19 situation in Nagpur, on Monday. Sandip Joshi, Mayor; Chandrashekhar Bawankule, former Guardian Minister; Jalaj Sharma, Additional Municipal Commissioner, and others also are seen.
 
 
Staff Reporter :
 
Expressing satisfaction over NMC’s work, the former Chief Minister suggests to send SMS to patient’s mobile phone for facilitating admission to hospital where a bed is available 
 
Instead of setting up a ‘Jumbo Hospital’ of 1,000 beds for COVID-19 patients in city, smaller facilities with 200-300 beds should be set up in different parts of the city so that managing the affairs becomes easier, suggested Devendra Fadnavis, Leader of Opposition in Legislative Assembly. Fadnavis made the suggestion in a meeting held at Nagpur Municipal Corporation (NMC) headquarters in Civil Lines here on Monday. Sandip Joshi, Mayor; Chandrashekhar Bawankule, former Guardian Minister of district; Radhakrishnan B, Municipal Commissioner; Manisha Kothe, Deputy Mayor; Vijay Zalke, Chairman of NMC Standing Committee, and others were present in the meeting. Making a presentation on the COVID-19 situation in city and NMC’s response, Radhakrishnan B informed Fadnavis that a ‘Jumbo Hospital’ was proposed to be set up in Nagpur city.
 
The work on the said hospital will start soon, he added. To this, Fadnavis pointed out that the experience in other parts of Maharashtra showed that ‘Jumbo Hospital’ was difficult to manage. Hence, smaller hospitals should be created to better manage the situation and provide better facilities to patients, and proper care of medical teams. He also suggested NMC administration to think if some of the vacant buildings in the city could be used for such smaller COVID-19 facilities. When a patient tests positive, he calls NMC control room to know about availability of beds in hospital. NMC refers the patient to a particular hospital.
 
However, after going to the said hospital, patient is sent back. Raising this issue, Fadnavis suggested that SMS should be sent to the patient’s cellphone to avoid such situations. As part of it, complete information of a patient should be sought first when he calls NMC control room. After knowing his Oxygen level, the patient should be informed about the hospital where beds are available. Immediately, SMS should be sent to the patient’s cellphone. “SMS will act as a token for immediate admission of patients to the hospital and will streamline the entire process,” he said. After taking stock of the situation, Fadnavis expressed satisfaction over the measures taken by NMC.
 
He was satisfied with the number of tests conducted, availability of beds and ambulance, COVID care centres etc. “The number of patients is increasing day-by-day. But, the number of complaints from citizens seems to have decreased. The number of patients may increase in the next few days. If we focus on proper treatment to patients, contact tracing, testing etc, matters can be managed well,” he said. Devendra Fadnavis also appreciated NMC for ‘COVID Samvad’ initiative under which expert doctors answer the queries of citizens through on-line interaction. Girish Vyas and Nago Ganar, MLCs; Krishna Khopde and Vikas Kumbhare, MLAs; Sandeep Jadhav, Ruling Party Leader; senior corporator Dayashankar Tiwari; Jalaj Sharma, Ram Joshi, and Sanjay Nipane, Additional Municipal Commissioners; Nirbhay Jain, Deputy Municipal Commissioner; Amol Chaurapgar, officiating Deputy Municipal Commissioner; Dr Sanjay Chilkar, Health Officer; Dr Bhavana Sonkusale, Medical Officer; Dr Tikesh Bisen of Tata Trust also were present in the meeting. 
 
‘400 beds in NMC hospitals to be available by month-end’ Radhakrishnan B said that NMC was working to augment the health facilities in the city. COVID-19 patients are currently being treated in 42 private hospitals. Work is underway to increase the number of such hospitals. Auditors have been appointed to audit the bills of private hospitals. Railways had assured to make available its hospital to NMC a few days ago. Due to technical difficulties, the hospital could not be started for a few days. Therefore, the staff from Railway hospital will serve at NMC’s AYUSH Hospital in Sadar. As many as 200 doctors passing out of Government Medical College and Hospital, and 60 from Indira Gandhi Government Medical College and Hospital are being given appointments soon to resolve the issue of availability of medical staff. Besides, by the end of this month, 400 beds in NMC hospitals will be available, said the Municipal Commissioner. There are 65 ambulances including 5 ambulances in each zone, in service of citizens.
 
About 6,500 to 7,000 covid tests are being conducted daily. The number of RT-PCR tests is being increased. Shortcomings in contact tracing caused many difficulties earlier. Now, contact tracing has been streamlined. NMC hospitals are ready now. Earlier, it was difficult to start them due to lack of medical staff.