Thiruvananthapuram GH to be made exclusive COVID-19 treatment centre

Other patients, except those in Ward 9, to be shifted to various govt. hospitals

Safety concerns: Though textile shops resumed functioning in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday, shoppers were scarce even on the Bakrid eve on Thursday. S. Mahinsha

The General Hospital (GH) here is set to be made an exclusive COVID-19 treatment centre as part of augmenting the efforts to contain the spread of the pandemic in the capital district.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan told media persons here that other patients would be shifted to other government hospitals, including the Government Medical College Hospital (MCH) here. However, patients in Ward 9 that accommodated destitute patients and those suffering from mental illness would not be shifted. They would continue to receive treatment in the hospital adhering to safety guidelines.

The hospital has 769 beds, including 25 beds in the intensive care unit (ICU).

Doctors’ demand

Notably, the announcement comes on a day when a doctors’ meeting at the hospital appealed to the government to continue to treat non-COVID-19 patients also at the GH.

Pointing out that the hospital lagged only behind the MCH in terms of specialty and super-specialty facilities among the public health institutions in the district, the meeting had observed that assigning the hospital for COVID-19 treatment alone would render several services there unutilised.

Services

These included the facilities of the ICU; specialty services in the General Medicine department; and facilities, including cath lab, echocardiogram, acute and peritoneal dialysis, renal biopsy, endoscopy and malignance laparoscopic procedure of super-specialty departments of Neurology, Urology, Gastroenterology, Nephrology and Cardiology.