Expedite measures to contain covid wave meticulously: Bhatnagar to health authorities

Jammu, Jan 6: Advisor to Lieutenant Governor, Rajiv Rai Bhatnagar Thursday impressed upon the medical authorities to expedite all the measures to contain the anticipated covid-19 third wave meticulously amid the Omnicron threat.
These remarks were made by the Advisor in a meeting called to discuss Covid-19 management in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir.
The meeting was attended by Additional Chief Secretary, H&ME, Vivek Bhardawaj; Director General, Family Welfare & Director Health, Jammu, Dr Saleem ur Rehman; MD, JKMSCL, Dr Yashpal Sharma and other officers of the health department.
MD, NHM, Choudhary Yasin; Director Health, Kashmir, Mushtaq Ahmad and other Kashmir based officers attended the meeting through video conferencing.
The Advisor urged both the Directors to put their heads together to look into all the inadequacies by taking the past experience into consideration. He asked them to build a system to reach affected people at their doorsteps requiring help or medical attention.
Bhatnagar also exhorted upon the officers to rework the deployment plan of the medical and paramedical plan without stripping any health centre from the critical care staff. He asked them to enhance the capacity of all the hospitals to deal with any situation proactively. He advised them to fully equip the district hospitals with the requisite paraphernalia for quality care of the covid patients there so that the tertiary care hospitals are not overburdened.
The Advisor asked them to devise a proper admission and referral policy to promote responsibility at every level. He asked them to make accountability a hallmark of their work so that medical care of the requisite standards is given. He impressed upon them to see that no patient has to take burden of undue travel in this harsh weather.
He emphasised on making the call centers fully equipped besides extending tele-consultation to those requiring it. He asked them to look into the aspect that both the incoming and outgoing call traffic is dealt smoothly.
The Advisor also prompted the Directors to read all the updated protocols regarding the home isolation and administering the medicines to the patients issued by Ministry of Health and ICMR. He asked them to prepare for continuous maintenance and monitoring of the medical assets like oxygen plants, ventilators and other equipments so that all of it is used as per its requirement and medical advice. He asked them to display the control room numbers in each ward for patients to reach authorities for any suggestion or complaint.
He asked the medical authorities to ensure that treatment and monitoring protocols are meticulously followed . He asked them to use media optimally to create awareness among public and dispel the concerns of people. He asked them to inform them on real time basis by creating mobile applications and updating the data in real time. He asked them to keep an eye on fake news and inform people about all the facilities and medicines available with each medical centre.
The Advisor also took stock of hospital wise availability of ICU beds/ oxygen concentrators, District/ hospital wise critical care teams formulated, district/ hospital wise status of oxygen plants, district/ hospital wise availability of pediatric beds including ICU beds, Stock position of the essential medicines, deployment of dedicated team of Power, PHE, Mechanical for ensuring uninterrupted oxygen /power supply and furnishing of fortnight death audit report to ensure transparency and efficiency at each level.
The meeting was informed that there are some 19783 isolation beds in the hospitals of UT. Out of these 5468 are oxygen supported beds, 717 are ICU beds. It was further given that of the total 1747 ventilators, 1320 have been dedicated for covid care besides 1,10,866 LPM oxygen generation capacity is available from 151 Commissioned plants in the UT.
The meeting was further informed that the testing facilities have been augmented . The required medicines are available with the JKMSCL stores that are transferred to hospitals for the care of patients.