SRINAGAR: Lieutenant Governor, Manoj Sinha today visited the construction site of Defence Research and Development Organisation’s (DRDO) 500-bedded COVID Hospital at Khonmoh and inspected the work done for the establishment of the Covid dedicated facility.
While reviewing the progress being made so far, the Lt Governor directed the DRDO and district officials to expedite the pace of work and complete the Hospital by 5th June,2021 for trial-run of all the facilities. Emphasizing the importance of developing specialized critical care for infants and children, the Lt Governor directed the officials to prepare a 25-bedded Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) in the facility with a dedicated team of doctors, nurses, dieticians and coordinators.
Take comprehensive measures to ensure that staffing, medical supplies, durable equipment, diagnostic tools, and other logistics are ready within the timeline, the Lt Governor told the officers. “My focus is to ensure high quality of care with sincere effort, rapid and efficient interventions, while integrating emergency response of healthcare services at the Hospital to fight Covid-19 pandemic”, observed the Lt Governor. Nothing is more important than people’s lives and the administration is working round-the-clock for the best healthcare facilities for everyone and in every corner of J&K, added the Lt Governor. During his visit, the Lt Governor took a round of the facility and enquired about the Covid care facilities including availability of ICU beds, triage facility, medical equipment, doctors, paramedics and other facilities to be extended to the patients. It was informed that the Hospital has the capacity for 125 ICU beds and 375 beds with oxygen connectivity.
The Lt Governor asked the officials to equip the facility with CT Scan machines and other medical imaging techniques to be made available at the Hospital. The Lt Governor reiterated that the operationalization of DRDO’s Hospitals in twin cities of Jammu and Srinagar would strengthen Government’s efforts against Covid pandemic, besides substantially increasing the Covid dedicated bed capacity and treatment in J&K. Health Officials, Divisional, and District administration were directed to lend all possible support to DRDO so that the hospital would be completed within stipulated time. Pertinently, the Lt Governor, on May 29, had inaugurated the DRDO’s 500-bedded Covid hospital in Jammu to ramp up the healthcare infrastructure to effectively deal with the Corona virus pandemic. Nitishwar Kumar, Principal Secretary to the Lt Governor; Pandurang K Pole, Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir; Prof (Dr.) Samia Rashid, Principal GMC&AHs Srinagar; Mohammad Aijaz, Deputy Commissioner Srinagar; Ajaz Ahmad Dar, Chief Engineer, Distribution, KPDCL and other concerned officers accompanied the Lt Governor during his visit.
Dr. Anil Khurana, Chief Engineer R&D North and officials of DRDO were also present on the occasion.
