Financial Commissioner, Health and Medical Education Department, Atal Dulloo, on Wednesday directed the concerned authorities to ensure availability of adequate facilities at the designated COVID-19 hospitals.The FC issued these directions while chairing a meeting held to review the facilities being extended to Corona positive patients at the dedicated COVID-19 hospitals across the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.He instructed the Directors of Health Services in Jammu and Kashmir to constitute separate three member teams to check and monitor the facilities at the COVID hospitals. The team of officers will submit a report about the functioning of the COVID care hospitals and action will be taken accordingly.“In order to fight the Corona pandemic effectively it shall be ensured that all the designated COVID-19 hospitals across Jammu and Kashmir are fully equipped in terms of manpower, machinery and other equipments. The isolation facilities in the hospitals should be maintained in accordance with the proper protocols and standards,” he said.Elaborating further, he said that the team shall visit the COVID hospitals across J&K and see that they are fully equipped in all respects to handle the corona pandemic effectively. This will help in ensuring that any inadequacy in these designated hospitals is fulfilled on immediate basis, he added.The three member team will also see the bed capacity in all the district hospitals and other designated places. Besides, the meeting decided that the it will be ensured that isolation beds in all the districts are placed in adequate numbers with all the requisite facilities in place.
The FC asked the concerned to lay focus on strict implementation of all the guidelines and protocols with utmost care saying that all efforts are being taken to upgrade the facilities at these COVID hospitals. He said that all the decisions taken regarding tackling the pandemic should be implemented on ground so as not to leave room for any complacency.The FC directed the authorities to put in place proper measures to avoid intermingling of patients. He said that proper guidelines should be followed to avoid intermingling of general patients with the suspected cases and those of suspected cases with the Corona positive patients to stem the contraction of virus. He added that the normal routine work in the Public Health Centres should not be disturbed.“While taking up concrete and effective measures to fight the Corona virus we must not lose sight of the routine activities in PHC. These should be used as a last resort in the fight against the Corona virus,’ he said.Mission Director, National Health Mission, Bhupinder Kumar; Principal Government Medial College, Jammu, Dr Sunanda Raina; Director Health Services, Jammu, Dr Renu Sharma; Director (Coordination) New Medical Colleges, Dr Yashpal Sharma; Commandant (Medical) CRPF, Jammu, Dr Dinesh Pithauria; Joint Director Planning, H&ME, Madan Lal, Deputy Director Planning, H&ME, Aman Kumar Dogra and other officers attended the meeting. Officers from Kashmir division of Health and other departments attended the meeting through video conferencing.