In Ghaziabad, those who accompany Covid-19 patients to hospitals to be tested too

Ghaziabad: In order to deal with post-festival rise in the number of coronavirus (Covid-19) disease patients and also to bring the attendants of Covid-19 positive patients under the testing net, Ghaziabad on Thursday issued directions to all hospitals that details of every attendant coming to hospitals along with positive patients be made available to the district administration. Officials said that they have also asked private hospitals to increase the number of ICU beds and also reserve at least 20% of the same.

Officials said they are gearing up for any possible spike in Covid-19 cases and have directed for measures. In this connection, district magistrate Ajay Shankar Pandey held meetings with office bearers of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) along with officials of various private hospitals.

“As part of a more comprehensive strategy to deal with high-risk groups, we have asked hospitals to note down details of every attendant who is coming to the hospital along with Covid-19 positive patients. Such persons will also include drivers of any private cabs. Once the details are received at our control room, we will encourage these persons to get tested. Although we already have teams for contact tracing but such persons are at high risk as they come in direct contact with positive patients,” Pandey said.

He said that he had also asked hospitals and sought support from the IMA, Ghaziabad for more ICU beds and to reserve at least 20% ICU beds for patients who may need referral from government hospitals.

“The hospitals have agreed to 20% reservation as there is already a government order which directs for 50% reservation. But, gauging the present requirement, we have asked them to reserve only 20% at present. In case need be, we will scale the number of reserved beds further,” the DM added.

According to the health department, there are 13 private hospitals which provide paid treatment to Covid-19 patients in the district and have a combined strength of 934 beds. Overall, they said, the district has 189 ICU beds which include 34 in government hospitals and rest 155 in private hospitals.

“We have assured the administration that hospitals will increase beds and also ICU beds. There is one more private hospital with 100 beds which will start functioning and it also has 30 ICU beds. So, it is estimated that the private setup will be able to add about 50-75 beds in coming days,” said Dr Ashish Agrawal, president of IMA – Ghaziabad.

He said that the requirement of reservation of 20% of ICU beds will also be fulfilled.

“In case need be, the hospitals will increase the beds and keep 20% ICU beds reserved. So, the 20% of ICU beds will be made available. There is focus on ICU beds as we are witnessing that that severity of the disease has increased in present times and patients require more of L3 category treatment,” he added.

The L1, L2 and L3 category hospitals are part of the state government’s three-tier hospital structure to deal with Sars-Cov-2 patients. The L1 are basically for asymptomatic patients while L2 and L3 hospitals deal with patients who suffer moderate and severe symptoms, respectively.

The district administration has chalked out a comprehensive “post festival strategy” to deal with any rise in Covid-19 cases. The plan will be put in place after the end of Chhath festivities.

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