Three private hospitals collaborate to run a designated Covid-19 hospital - Hindustan Times
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Three private hospitals collaborate to run a designated Covid-19 hospital

ByArchana Mishra, Gurugram
May 11, 2020 11:27 PM IST

In a one of a kind initiative, three private hospitals in the city—Medanta, Fortis and Artemis—are collaborating to operate the Medeor Hospital in IMT Manesar as a designated Covid-19 hospital. The three hospitals will be providing their doctors, health staff and equipment to tackle Covid-19 cases. Officials and senior doctors said that setting up the dedicated facility will also help resume normal functioning and surgeries in city hospitals.

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The facility will be in addition to the other Covid-19 hospital, ESIC in Sector 9A, which is already under considerable strain after a surge in the number of cases in the city. Of the city’s 142 cases, over 60 patients are admitted to the 100-bed ESIC hospital. The district administration and the health department have also roped in six private hospitals—Metro, Naryana, Signature, Columbia Asia, Park and W Pratiksha—which will reserve 100 beds each for Covid-19 patients, adding 600 beds to the existing capacity.

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VS Kundu, monitoring in-charge for Covid-19 in Gurugram, said, “Medeor wasn’t functional initially as it lacked the adequate manpower and experience required to handle the Covid-19 load. The state health department’s initial plan was to requisition health staff and equipment from other districts to run the hospital but it was not sufficient. Instead, we thought of collaborating with private hospitals to make it functional.” The health department had first declared Medeor a dedicated hospital for Covid-19 treatment in March.

According to Kundu, the idea to run a collaborative designated Covid-19 hospital was floated by chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar and Medanta’s chairman and managing director Dr Naresh Trehan.

Each of the three hospitals will provide four doctors along with 18 nurses in the first two weeks. Later, 18 additional nurses will be deployed. This will be in addition to Medeor’s current staff of 100 nurses and 30 doctors. Currently, Medeor has dedicated 120 beds for Covid-19 patients, which will be increased to 180 beds. A 20-bed ICU facility has also been set up to take care of critical patients. “We are currently limiting hospital services for Covid-19 patients. It is a 500-bed hospital, of which at least 120 beds are dedicated for Covid-19 patients,” Nihaj Muhammed, COO, Medeor Hospital, said.

Dr Naresh Trehan said, “The hospital will cater to all Covid-19 patients, whether asymptomatic or critical. Later the plan is to involve a hotel or a facility in the vicinity of the hospital to keep asymptomatic patients or patients with mild symptoms.”

“With this initiative, we will be able to help non-Covid-19 patients who are waiting for their surgeries and treatments. Surgeries have been paused in the last five weeks,” Dr Trehan said, adding it would help take away the psychological fear that visiting a hospital would make people contract the virus.

Ashutosh Raghuvanshi, CEO, Fortis Healthcare, said, “A 120-bed hospital is sufficient for a couple of months. If necessary, we will increase the number of beds. We are utilising good infrastructure by pooling in resources. It will be easy for us to take care of non-Covid patients who are in immediate need of therapy, surgery and dialysis.”

The three hospitals have been admitting patients since March after Covid-19 cases with travel history started being reported. Dr Sushila Katariya of Medanta hospital will handle the team of doctors at Medeor. She was a part of the team that treated 14 Italian tourists who tested positive in March and were admitted in Medanta.

The state health department has also permitted home isolation of Covid-19 patients who have mild symptoms or are asymptomatic, only in case of requisite arrangements at the house.

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