SAMBALPUR: With the load on isolation wards of the two Covid hospitals on the premises of VIMSAR, Burla, mounting due to huge inflow of suspected patients, the hospital authorities are planning to set up separate wards in different departments to manage the crowd.
As per the Covid protocols, patients who come to the Casualty have to undergo a rapid antigen test before admission. Patients with Covid symptoms and comorbidities are admitted to isolation wards of the Covid hospitals and their RT-PCR test is conducted. They are shifted to their respective departments only after their RT-PCR report comes negative. However, with patients inflow to the Casualty increasing manifold, the isolation wards have very little space to accommodate them.
There are 80 beds in the isolation wards of the Covid hospital including 50 beds in Covid Hospital-1 and 30 beds in Covid Hospital-2. However, on an average, at least 40 suspected patients are being sent to the isolation wards each day. Superintendent of VIMSAR Dr Lal Mohan Nayak said due to unavailability of beds at isolation wards, the suspected Covid patients are being directly admitted to the departments for treatment.
Even as the hospital authorities are aware that this is putting the lives of other patients at risk, they are helpless. “Considering the situation we have decided to set up separate isolation wards in the departments. We are planning to set up the wards in the departments with a high inflow of patients in the first phase. As an alternative, we are converting one of the floors of the new 300-bed Covid hospital into an isolation ward”, he said.
Official sources at the hospital said, in the first phase the authorities have planned to set-up isolation wards in three departments including general medicine, pulmonary medicine and gynaecology. For the time being, 20 beds will be placed in each of these wards. Subsequently, the numbers will be increased as per requirement.