SHILLONG, April 22: As COVID-19 cases keep surging in the state, and government hospitals are fully stretched, private hospitals in the city are gearing up to step in.
At an official meeting held here on Wednesday private hospitals have been conveyed their state of preparedness to handle coronavirus cases.
The Shillong Times tried to ascertain the status of some of these hospitals.
While speaking to this reporter, Chief Medical Officer of Nazareth Hospital, Dr Gordon Rangad said that they have taken a decision on Thursday to accept COVID patients as far as possible.
“As of now, we have reserved around 10 beds. But if the need arises we are going to open COVID-19 ward and close wards for other ailments,” Dr Rangad said.
Informing that the hospital has eight ventilators, he informed that they have marked two ventilators beds for coronavirus patients.
He further stated that the hospital has enough stock of medical oxygen at present. “But I will not be able to comment now whether we will have a problem if there is a surge since we are seeing shortage of medical oxygen throughout the country,” the CMO of Nazareth Hospital said.
Meanwhile, Medical Specialist of Dr. H. Gordon Roberts Hospital, Dr Meban Kharkongor said that the hospital has reserved around 30 beds for COVID-19 patients including six ICU beds and 24 oxygen beds. “We have also kept separate ARI clinic and Covid emergency,” Dr Kharkongor informed.
He further said that if there is a need they will utilise all their ventilators for the novel coronavirus patients.
He also informed that though they do not have any shortage of medical oxygen, there might be shortage of big cylinder oxygen if the situation worsens.
Moreover, Senior Medical Officer of Woodland Hospital, Dr PW Nongrum informed that they had already highlighted the preparedness and difficulties of hospitals before the government if the situation aggravates.
“We have made a detailed submission to the government on how far they extend our help if there is further surge in the COVID-19 cases,” Dr Nongrum said.
He further informed that they have kept two ventilators reserved for critical COVID-19 patients. “As of now, we have six beds reserved for COVID-19 patients and it can be expanded depending on the number of cases. Last year, we had segregated an entire floor for COVID-19 cases,” Dr Nongrum said.
According to him, one major difficulty of the hospital is the space constraint. “We will have problem in admitting since we have less number of beds,” Senior Medical Officer of Woodland Hospital stated.
He however said that the hospital will have to judiciously utilise the medical oxygen to ensure that they are able to provide the same to all the patients including COVID patients.
Further, Bethany Hospital’s Nodal officer and spokesperson, Dr Kyntiewlang Sanmiet said that the hospital is adequately prepared in terms of infrastructure and manpower to handle a surge of COVID-19 cases.
“We have already allotted a desired number of beds for COVID-19 patients. All our COVID isolation beds are oxygen-supported and some are equipped with ventilators,” Dr. Sanmiet said.
He further informed that at the moment they have nine indoor COVID patients and they are being provided the best care by a dedicated team of doctors and staff.
With the demand for medical oxygen increasing day by day following a spurt in the COVID-19 cases all over the country, he informed that they have already geared up to maintain enough oxygen stock in their depot much more than the current oxygen consumption capacity in the hospital.
“We have scaled up testing facility in order to save precious lives. The only problem we are facing right now is that there is no supply of Remdesivir from our suppliers. But we are thankful to the government for their willingness to support us in providing this very miraculous drug whenever we need. We are also ready to upgrade more critical beds with assistance from the government,” Dr Sanmiet added.
