LG Sinha inaugurates DRDO’s 500-bed Covid Hospital at Khonmoh

Srinagar, June 9: Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha Wednesday inaugurated the Defence Research and Development Organisation’s (DRDO) 500-bedded COVID Hospital at Khonmoh, Srinagar.

After constructing a 500-bedded COVID hospital in Jammu, DRDO has completed another 500-bedded hospital in Srinagar in just 17 days.

Housing all the requisite modern facilities, the centrally air-conditioned facility has the capacity for 125 ICU beds, out of which 25 are reserved for children and 375 beds with 24-hour oxygen connectivity. 10 bedded Triage area has also been built in 100 sqm. The Covid care facility will fully start its operations once the trial run of all the medicare facilities is completed.

“My deepest gratitude to the Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Home Minister Amit Shah, and the Defence Minister Rajnath Singh for providing the necessary assistance and interventions in augmenting healthcare & medical facilities across J&K,” said the Lt Governor.

“It is only due to personal intervention of Hon’ble Prime Minister that J&K has witnessed such large scale capacity enhancement of the medical infrastructure. Recently, the UT received 16 Medical Oxygen Generation Plants from Europe in a short span of three weeks, substantially enhancing the medical oxygen availability in the region.”

The Lt Governor also lauded the DRDO for playing a key role in India’s fight against COVID-19. “I acknowledge the hard work of DRDO officials, who have completed both the hospitals in a short span of time, adding 1000 additional beds to serve the people in Jammu and Kashmir”, he added.

Speaking on UT Government’s initiatives aiming towards transforming J&K’s health system in view of Covid pandemic, the Lt Governor remarked that our strategy has been to implement a host of interventions in response to the evolving situations and then quantifying the impact of those initiatives in providing relief to the patients and strengthening the overall healthcare delivery system.

Some notable interventions include continuous augmentation of ICU and Oxygen supported beds, deployment of former medical staff and fast track deployment of newly qualified staff, decentralization of health system through Panchayat Covid Care Centres and starting an accelerated vaccination drive.

The Lt Governor observed that it is because of our collective efforts that J&K now has a greater capacity to treat all Covid-19 and other patients. Taking timely decisions to increase hospital capacity in response to the pandemic lead to better management of patients, he added.

The Lt Governor also thanked and congratulated all the PRI representatives, government officers, health department, police and security forces for continuously working in this pandemic. With the active participation of all of you, we have handled the situation of Corona in J&K in a better way, he added.

The Lt Governor took a round of the various sections of the facility and enquired about the Covid care facilities to be extended to the patients including diagnostic facilities, medical equipment, oxygen supply, doctors, paramedics and other healthcare facilities.

Adhering to the directions of the Lt Governor for developing specialized critical care for infants and children, a 25-bedded Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) has been established in the facility.

On May 30, the Lt Governor had visited the site of this Covid hospital and passed specific direction for the early completion of the facility.

Dr. Farooq Abdullah, Member of Parliament; Rajeev Rai Bhatnagar, Advisor to the Lt Governor; Dr. Arun Kumar Mehta, Chief Secretary; Atal Dulloo, Financial Commissioner, Health & Medical Education Department; Nitishwar Kumar, Principal Secretary to the Lt Governor; Pandurang K Pole, Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir; Prof (Dr.) Samia Rashid, Principal GMC&AHs Srinagar; Mohammad Aijaz, Deputy Commissioner Srinagar; Dr. Mushtaq Ahmad Rather, Director Health Services, Kashmir, and other concerned officers were present on the occasion.

Dr. Anil Khurana, Chief Engineer R&D North; Amit Kumar Rai, Scientist & Project Manager; Ravindra Kumar, Scientist & Project Incharge; Zubair Ali, Scientist & Liaison Officer and other officials of DRDO were also present.