CHENNAI: Waterlogging affected many hospitals in the city on Sunday, bringing back memories of the 2015 floods. A private hospital at T Nagar had to shift three babies admitted to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) to another hospital as there was no electricity.
Dr N Ezhilan, MLA, who was inspecting the waterlogged areas in the locality, told TNIE, “The hospital decided to shift the babies as it didn’t want to take a risk after the power cut. One of the babies was on incubator.”
Water also entered many government hospital premises, including the Institue of Child Health, Government Women’s Hospital at Egmore, Government Hospital for Thoracic Medicine at Sanitorium, and Government Chromepet Hospital. Pumping machines were called into action to prevent water from entering into the hospital wards.
Health Secretary J Radhakrishna inspected the Government Hospital for Thoracic Medicine and others, and directed the collectors and health teams to ensure there is no waterlogging on the premises. He further instructed them to ensure storage of adequate fuel for generators, and the functionality of emergency services at the hospitals.
He directed health officials to ensure private hospitals also have adequate oxygen and that the generators are functional there. He instructed hospitals not to keep generators on basements or lower floors, where they can get inundated.
Officials were further instructed to conduct health camps at relief camps and low-lying areas affected by the incessant rains to prevent an outbreak of infectious diseases. He said both preventive and adequate preparedness-related steps have been taken by the Health Department as directed by Chief Minister M K Stalin.
Advising people to drink boiled water, he said, “As drainage might have got mixed with water in sumps, people are advised to pump out existing water and clean the sumps with bleaching powder before filling it up with fresh water to prevent water-borne infections.”
Radhakrishna said the Health Department is now additionally providing preventive screening camp services using their 416 mobile medical units and 770 jeep-borne medical units at the field areas. He requested people to go to the screening camps in case of any infection, and avoid self-medication.
Numbers functioning 24x7 at Covid control room on DMS campus:
044 29510400, 044 29510500, 9444340496, 8754448477
Contact for health related issues: 104