Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur inaugurated the dedicated Make Shift Hospital at Bhangrotu in Mandi district today.Constructed at a cost of about 7 crore, this hospital has a facility of 104 oxygenated beds. Along with 18 bedded Emergency Care Unit (ECU), this hospital also has facility of 10 bedded labour cum recovery room and operation theatre. Defibrillator machine has been set up to stabilise heart rate in case of heart attack. An anaesthesia work station has also been set up in the hospital. Every bed has facility of direct oxygen supply from the manifold oxygen plant.Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur after inaugurating the hospital visited every block of the hospital and closely took stock of the health facilities and services available there.Later, in an informal interaction with the media persons, the Chief Minister said that this hospital having ultra-modern facilities would be helpful in fighting against Corona pandemic. Once the Corona pandemic is over, this hospital would be useful as Super-Speciality hospital to facilitate the people of the area.He said that the State government has done a commendable job in strengthening and expansion of health facilities in the State along with capacity building. He said that as a result of effective management by the State government, there was no dearth of oxygenated beds and oxygen supply even when the highest number of Covid cases were being registered in the State.He said that during Covid pandemic only, the State Government has set up 8 PSA oxygen plants and the efforts are being made to set up 12 other such plants.The Chief Minister said that initially there were only 50 ventilators available in the State. Out of available ventilators, some of them were not functioning properly. He said that the present State government has succeeded in setting up 700 functional ventilators and apart from this, today 1700 oxygen concentrators are available in the State Government.He thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for increasing oxygen quota for the State. He said that initially the oxygen quota for State was 15 MT, which was increased to 40 MT on the request of State.Jai Ram Thakur said that in order to ensure better treatment to Covid patients, the bed capacity has been increased from 1200 to 5000 and the Make Shift facilities were made available in the State. 250 beds in Radha Soami Satsang Paraur whereas 200 oxygenated bed facility were made available in both Khaliyar and Solan. He thanked Radha Soami Satsang management for their support to State government at this hour of crisis.
The Chief Minister said that a sharp decline in Covid cases has been noticed in last 10-12 days in the State. There was a time when the active cases exceeded 40,000, which is now reduced to 11,000. Death rate has also reduced, however it is still not satisfactory.He said that if there is continuous decline in the Corona infection cases, the present dedicated health institutions for Covid care would be de-notified in a phased manner.The Chief Minister also held a meeting with the District administration and senior officers of Health department in Ner Chowk Medical College auditorium. He gave necessary directions for preparedness and capacity building in order to tackle the expected third wave of Covid-19.He said that to fight the third wave of Corona virus, it is important to prepare a precise strategy and to get prepared beforehand. It is expected that the children are more vulnerable to the third wave of Covid. Keeping in view the necessary health requirements of the children, all necessary arrangements are being made in the State. As part of preparedness, health equipments and other facilities are being arranged in advance.Jai Ram Thakur said that the vaccination programme for age group of more than 45 years is going smoothly. After 15th June the vaccine would again be available in the State for 18 plus age group and the vaccination programme would further be accelerated.He asked to chalk out a solid strategy to tackle Covid-19 in districts and to prepare Civil Hospitals of various Sub-Divisions for managing Corona virus effectively.Jal Shakti Minister Mahender Singh Thakur stressed the need to develop necessary facilities for providing appropriate Covid treatment in various Civil Hospitals. He said that efforts should be made to provide health care facilities to Covid patients near to their homes so that timely treatment could be ensured. This would also save the time for shifting patients of far-flung areas to Mandi or Ner Chowk. The Principal of SLBSMC Ner Chowk Dr. R C Thakur informed about treatment related details of Covid patients admitted in the hospital. He also apprised about the health management in the hospital.Deputy Commissioner Rugved presented the details regarding the Covid situation in the district and further preparedness.Health Minister Dr. Rajiv Saizal, MLA Rakesh Jamwal, Vinod Kumar, Inder Singh Gandhi, Jawahar Thakur and Prakash Rana, Chairman Milk Federation Nihal Chand Sharma, Chairman Waqf Board Rajbali, Chairman Zila Parishad Pal Verma, Chancellor Atal Medial and Research University Dr. Surender Kashyap, SP Shalini Agnihotri, Chief Medical Officer Dr. Devender Sharma, Medical Superintendent Dr. PL Verma and other senior officers were also present on the occasion.