LG Manoj Sinha directs to increase 1050 oxygen beds within week in Kashmir

The Lt Governor directed that increased bed capacity with oxygen should be ready within a week. It, he said, will substantially improve the health infrastructure and help out patients in the hour of crisis.

The Lt Governor, an official handout said, chaired a series of meetings with senior doctors and CMOs of Kashmir division at Civil Secretariat here, in which he reviewed the Covid-19 situation and containment measures put in place to effectively control the spread of Corona virus.

Emphasizing on taking comprehensive measures for better patient care management, the Lt Governor directed CMOs of Kashmir division to ensure triaging and judicious referrals, adding that district hospitals are fully equipped to handle Covid cases with present deployment of best doctors.

The Lt Governor further directed for effective and prompt availability of Ambulance services so that Ambulances are made available to needy, as and when required.

The Lt Governor asked the Doctors to talk to people on religious gatherings and create awareness regarding Covid-19 SOPs, besides highlighting the information related to Covid control measures through various communication media.

“Our priority is to break the chain of virus for which combined & collective efforts need to be taken to save precious human lives”, observed the Lt Governor. Vaccination must be done on war footing to reduce the mortality rate.

Focused attention needs to be given towards Covid-19 testing and contact tracing, besides speedy completion of the process of first dose of vaccination, maintained the Lt Governor.

In order to reach out to the people with vaccination, the Lt Governor instructed for starting vaccination in each municipal ward through dedicated teams.

He further called for deployment of more mobile vans for vaccination purpose. SMC Commissioner, Athar Amir Khan informed the meeting that mobile vans are operating in 36 municipal wards, which will be increased in coming days.

The Lt Governor asked the Health Officers to put in all out efforts to further improve the functioning of health institutions. Senior Doctors must reach out to every patient admitted in the hospitals, he maintained.

The Lt Governor also received the first hand appraisal about the functioning of Oxygen generation plants and passed specific directions for ensuring sufficient availability of Oxygen supply in all health institutions. It was informed that a few oxygen plants will become functional by the end of this week.

The Lt Governor instructed the concerned officers to ensure that all newly installed Oxygen plants have a back up buffer stock of oxygen cylinders. He further called for rational utilization of oxygen supply in all hospitals so that patients do not face any inconvenience.

The Lt Governor directed the CMOs to utilize maximum available resources for patient care at their respective health institutions, besides extending online consultation of doctors to patients to overcome the unnecessary rush of patients in hospitals.

The Lt Governor asked the CMOs to hire meritorious medical graduates to strengthen human resources in the health sector. He further asked them to identify the doctors and other paramedical staff who have retired from government services and keep close liaison with them.

Lauding the Medical fraternity for their tireless efforts in fight against the deadly virus, the Lt Governor urged them to work with added zeal and dedication in a well coordinated manner to defeat Covid-19.

He asked the Health functionaries to build up morale and confidence of people and ensure the availability of all requisite facilities for the patients to increase the recovery rate. Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar and Baseer Ahmad Khan – Advisors to Lt Governor; BVR Subrahmanyam, Chief Secretary; Atal Dulloo, Financial Commissioner, Health and Medical Education; Nitishwar Kumar, Principal Secretary to the Lt Governor; Ranjan Prakash Thakur, Principal Secretary to the Government, Industries & Commerce; Pandurang K Pole, Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir; Vijay Kumar, IGP Kashmir; Mohammad Aijaz, Deputy Commissioner Srinagar; HoDs of various departments and other senior officers of the Health department attended the meetings, in person and through virtual mode.