Robust set-ups in districts for Coronavirus treatment
Kolkata: In a bid to avoid rush of Covid patients with mild symptoms from the districts in city hospitals, the state government has decided to ensure robust regional set-ups for treatment of such patients. It has also decided to devise 'zone wise territorial arrangement' by pooling resources in neighbouring districts.
Senior IAS officers have been roped in for 'zonal coordination.' Manish Jain, Principal Secretary of the School Education and Higher Education departments, has been given the responsibility for zonal coordination in Bankura, Purulia, East and West Burdwan. Similarly, MV Rao, Additional Chief Secretary of the Panchayats and Rural Development and Cooperation departments, will coordinate between Jhargram, East and West Midnapore. While Surendra Gupta, Principal Secretary of GTA, would coordinate among Darjeeling, Jalpaiguri, Kalimpong, Alipurduar and Cooch Behar.
In a recently-held high-level meeting at the state Secretariat Nabanna, it was decided that all districts have to ensure that 'non-serious' Covid patients do not get referred to the hospitals in Kolkata unless the same is needed absolutely. All steps have been taken by the top brass of the state administration and the district authorities to create regional set-ups for Covid patients in the respective districts. "CMOHs have already taken steps and redeployed doctors and staff at districts as required. At the same time it has been advised to devise zone wise territorial arrangement by pooling resources in neighbouring districts as per the requirement," said a senior state government official.
According to a Health department official posted in the district, making arrangements for a maximum number of beds with the mechanism to supply oxygen is the most essential task. "In a bid to avoid referring non-serious patients to the city hospitals, sufficient beds with oxygen supply are needed. It is being done besides ensuring sufficient number of health workers to combat the surge in Covid cases," the official said. This comes when the number of Covid cases is crossing 11,000 in a day at present. At present there are 8,194 beds with 49.73 percent occupancy rate in the state. It was done as a target was set to enhance the number of beds by 20 and 25 per cent in state-run and private hospitals respectively. There are a total of 1,838 ICU/HDU beds and 1,283 ventilators in Covid hospitals.
