The new building constructed under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY) at the Government Medical College Hospital, Kozhikode, is yet to be fully utilised for COVID-19 treatment because of lack of facilities and manpower.
It was converted as a COVID treatment facility in the last week of April when the second wave of the pandemic hit the district and the number of infected persons started going up.
The building was supposed to have 200 beds with centralised oxygen facility. Two floors of the five-storeyed structure are being utilised for the purpose.
Sources, however, said that all the infected patients were yet to be fully shifted to the building as it doesn’t have an oxygen regulator. These devices are designed to regulate or lower oxygen pressure from a cylinder to levels that is safe for patients.
Right now, of the around 100 patients in the PMSSY block, only eight of them require intensive care unit support. Some payment issues are cited for the delay in installing the device. The facility also reportedly doesn’t have enough manpower, ie doctors and nurses and other supporting staff.
“Though the PMSSY block was declared as an exclusive COVID treatment facility, the number of ICU beds has not been increased so far. All the COVID patients are yet to be shifted here. Because of this, non-COVID treatment at the main hospital is affected,” one of the doctors told The Hindu .
He claimed that only relatively stable patients are being shifted to the PMSSY block right now. Because of the delay in shifting infected persons, even sick patients in general medicine, surgery and orthopaedics wards are lying on the floor and in the corridors.
It is believed that the college authorities are holding talks with the district administration to sort this out. They are also seeking to expedite the work on the medical intensive care unit. As soon as the work is over, the patients right now admitted to ortho ICU would be shifted there.
“There is already talk about a possible third wave of the infection. The medical college hospital needs to have more facilities for ICU care and oxygenation to counter it,” another doctor said.
