PGI plans infectious disease hospital at Sarangpur

Naina Mishra

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Tribune News Service

Chandigarh, September 1

To deal with pandemics such as Covid-19, the Postgraduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGI) will write to the Union Health Ministry for building an infectious disease hospital at the Sarangpur centre.

PGI Director Dr Jagat Ram said: “The institute will propose to the Central Government about creating a 200-bed infectious disease hospital at the newly acquired land in Sarangpur here.”

Experts have time and again pointed out the need for building an infectious disease hospital as there is an acute need to build new infectious disease hospitals that have facilities and expertise to manage all kinds of infection.

A group of PGI experts had also published an article citing that healthcare organisations must be ready with their contingency plans for managing several patients with contagious infectious disease.

“Ideally, every large hospital should have a facility that can function as a high-level isolation unit. An isolation unit ensures that healthcare staff and the hospital are equipped to deal with infectious disease outbreaks. Unfortunately, such facilities do not exist in several hospitals, especially in resource-limited settings. In such a scenario, healthcare set-ups need to convert their existing general structure into an infectious disease facility,” stated an article.

Prof Ram said: “The hospital is expected to have a facility of high-level isolation unit, which will be equipped to deal with infectious disease outbreaks. It will have negative pressure rooms, an isolation technique used in hospitals and medical centres to prevent cross-contamination from room to room.”

“There have been several outbreaks in the past such as H1N1, but we always forget the need to build an infectious disease hospital. This facility at Sarangpur will be used for infectious diseases such as plague, dengue, coronavirus and viral illness,” said Professor Ram said.

The institute had converted a general building into infectious disease hospital after the UT Administration had requested for the same.