Vice-Prez to inaugurate Nalagarh Covid hospital

Ambika Sharma

Tribune News Service

Solan, February 8

The Vice-President of India will virtually inaugurate the 45-bedded makeshift Covid hospital constructed at Nalagarh by the Central Building Research Institute (CBRI), Roorkee.

This is one of the three such facilities being created in the state in view of the pandemic. Covid Nodal officer for Baddi-Barotiwala-Nalagarh Dr Gagan said its construction had begun around November 14 and this prefabricated structure-based hospital had been completed within three months. Out of the 45 beds, 10 had been created for intensive care unit and this could be enhanced to 18 if needed.

“Since the BBN area has registered a large number of Covid cases when the pandemic was at its peak, it was decided to setup this makeshift hospital here to facilitate the patients. This was especially so as a large number of cases had to be referred to distant hospitals like the IGMC, Shimla, which took a lot of time. The presence of this makeshift hospital will help reduce referral cases,” he said.

It has been set-up over a 5,000 sq ft area and adjoins the community health centre at Nalagarh. It was announced in September 2020 when the pandemic was at its peak.

The state government will soon provide staff to this hospital as the existing staff is barely sufficient to cater to the normal patient inflow.

Elaborating on the facilities, Chief Medical Officer Dr Rajan Uppal said the hospital would provide tertiary care facilities to patients and its intensive care unit had 10 beds which were available to the patients with great difficulty.

The BBN area has registered 2,863 positive cases and 23 deaths, while 44,428 people have been tested till now. As many as 23 deaths have also been reported outside the BBN, including 17 at PGI, Chandigarh, three at the IGMC, Shimla, two at private hospitals and one at home.

With the Covid subsiding in the last few weeks, there were barely two active cases now in the BBN. The makeshift hospital could find use as a trauma care centre after the pandemic subsides.