Civil, Army officers recce site for 100-bed facility in Mohali

Tribune News Service
Mohali, May 13

To augment the health infrastructure, officers of the district administration and the Western Command today jointly conducted a recce of a site for setting up a 100-bed facility for Covid-19 patients in Mohali.

Divulging details, Deputy Commissioner Girish Dayalan said: “The initial plan is of setting up a makeshift facility. Till the pre-fabricated structure arrives, we intend to commence the facility on the second/third floor of the Civil Hospital in Phase 6, Mohali, in order to provide early respite in the raging pandemic”.

Dayalan said the exercise for joint needs assessment had begun and pooling of resources with the Western Command was being worked out so that a well-equipped L2 facility for holistic treatment to Covid-19 patients as per the ICMR guidelines could be set up.

Various aspects of the set-up, including site, deployment of doctors, nurses, paramedics, ambulance service, trained personnel for administration and management of the facility and uninterrupted oxygen supply, were being looked into, he said.

Dayalan said with the availability of L2/L3 beds hovering around saturation, they seek to make available as many oxygen beds as possible to Covid-19 patients.

Rubbishing aside the reports that due to non-commissioning of makeshift hospital in Mohali, the Western Command is now extending support to the Covid facility at Rajindra Hospital, Patiala, which will be a loss to natives of Mohali, Dayalan said: “Rajindra Hospital is the government L3 facility attached officially with Mohali and any critical Covid-19 patient from Mohali can be referred to Rajindra Hospital. So, by no means Army supporting Rajindra Hospital is a loss to the people of Mohali. In the meanwhile, we are working towards operationalising a civil-Army joint venture.”

Col Jasdeep Sandhu, Director, Civil and Military Affairs, Western Command, also ruled out the idea of sending staff earmarked for one district to another and said the Army would work to provide support to the civil authorities in combating the Covid surge, wherever the need be.

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