Express News Service
NEW DELHI: Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Friday chaired a high-level meeting to review the preparedness of the four central government hospitals in the national capital amid a shortage of beds, oxygen, and ICU facilities for a high number of Covid patients.
In a statement issued later, the government said that Safdarjung Hospital is augmenting the bed availability with 172 more Covid beds, and with this, the super-specialty block at the hospital would be fully converted to a specialty block for only infected patients.
Besides, 46 beds including 32 ICU beds are being added with help of the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
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At the Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital (RML Hospital), the government said that 200 additional beds were being created for Covid patients. In Lady Hardinge Medical College, 240 more beds are being created by CSIR which will become operational soon.
The Director of AIIMS (New Delhi) outlined the expansion plans for adding more beds in other wards. The total capacity will be enhanced to more than 1,000 beds for only Covid patients, said the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
Vardhan said the government directed to expedite installation of 5 Pressure Swing Adsorption plants at all locations in Delhi hospitals and asked them to be prepared with expansion plans for providing timely treatment to the Covid patients in the days to come.
“A decision was also taken to install DRDO-Tata Sons oxygen generation plants at AIIMS, NIC Jhajjar, Safdarjung, LHMC, and Dr. RML Hospital immediately,” said the statement adding that these plants will have a capacity to generate 1000 litres of oxygen per minute.
