PIMS infrastructure remains unutilised

Aparna Banerji 

Tribune News Service 

Jalandhar, June 9 

The Jalandhar Civil Hospital is providing treatment to over 200 patients at one point of time and a number of private hospitals are also referring Covid suspects coming to them to other establishments, however, not a single Covid case has been referred to the Punjab Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS), Jalandhar, so far.

Of the 311 positive cases reported in Jalandhar so far, none was reported from or referred to the PIMS. 

A majority of Covid cases are with the Civil Hospital and many others are being referred to DMC, CMC, PGI, and the IMA facility at Shahkot.

Sources said one of the primary reservations among the authorities at PIMS was of housing Covid patients, as all wards in the hospital were housed in one building and medical facilities were all interlinked. Besides, at present, the medical college had only five ventilators, of which only two could be used for Covid patients. Sources said PIMS had sought additional ventilators from the state government, but didn’t receive any response.

Civil Surgeon Dr Gurinder Kaur Chawla said, “At present, PIMS is not taking any Covid cases. We aren’t referring any of our patients there, as in the past PIMS has refused to us on multiple occasions.”

Anurag Aggarwal, Additional Chief Secretary, Health and Family Welfare, said, “There are enough beds at the civil hospital. We are planning to resume operations at the civil hospital, where the de-addiction centre would serve as a Covid unit.”