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 Delhi amid a continued shortage of beds, oxygen and ICU facilities for a high number of Covid patients.
In a statement, the government later said Safdarjung Hospital is augmenting the bed availability with 172 more Covid beds. With this, the super-speciality block at the hospital will be fully converted into a speciality 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.
At RML Hospital, the government said 200 additional beds were being created for Covid patients. At Lady Hardinge Medical College, 240 more beds are being created by the CSIR. 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-19 patients, said the Union Health Ministry.
Vardhan said the government directed to expedite the installation of five pressure swing adsorption plants at all locations at Delhi hospitals and asked them to be prepared with expansion plans for providing timely treatment to the 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 RML Hospital immediately,” it said, adding that these plants will have a capacity to generate 1,000 litres of oxygen per minute.