CHANDIGARH: The city’s major public hospitals are gearing up for the third wave of Covid-19, working on their bed strength, ventilators, oxygen supply and reallocation of manpower.
For the Covid patients, there are 100 ventilators in PGI, while 30 more will be coming under the PM Cares Fund.
Government Multispecialty Hospital, Sector 16, which has eight ventilators, will get 14 more.
The Sector 45 dispensary will have 13 ventilator beds, while Ram Darbar ESI will be a Covid care centre for children exclusively.
Government Medical College and Hospital, Sector 32, is planning to extend the ICU, including its paediatric ICU.
The existing one has around eight beds.
It can be expanded to an additional 17.
The Sector 48 hospital, GMCH and GMSH already have one pressure swing adsorption oxygen generator plants each.
PGI will be getting three such plants of 1,000 litre per minute capacity.
“The oxygen beds capacity can be increased to 600.
There are 30 beds in paediatric ICU, which can be expanded to 100 as well,” said Prof Jagat Ram, director, PGI.
Officials feel manpower can be provided whenever required.
“We do not have a shortage of nursing staff as non-Covid duties have been limited.
The staff can be shifted to Covid zones when the need arises.
There has also been additional recruitment of OT technicians.
We get the manpower whenever we ask the authorities,” said an official in Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH).
However, the same is not the case in PGI, where shortage of nursing staff exists.
“We have been demanding to fill up over 1,000 posts for a while.
During Covid duties, we have been not getting any leave or quarantine while we shift to the non-Covid area due to the manpower deficiency,” said Satyaveer Dagur, general secretary, PGI Nursing Welfare