Bhubaneswar: The state government has decided to strengthen its medical infrastructure to tackle the possible third wave of Covid-19 that may hit the children hard.
Accepting the recommendations of the Technical Committee headed by Director, Medical Education & Training (DMET) CBK Mohanty, the Health and Family Welfare department has asked all Collectors, municipal commissioners and heads of healthcare institutions to start preparedness to strengthen childcare in the hospitals in their respective areas.
The government has decided to create a designated wing for paediatric cases in the existing Covid hospitals for better and safe management of cases as strict isolation of Covid-19 positive paediatric cases may not be possible in general wards, as it may lead to transmission of infection to non-Covid children.
As per the plan, 357 beds will be created in seven state-run medical colleges and hospitals for the treatment of coronavirus-infected children. In all, 155 isolation beds, 44 HDU (High Dependency Unit), 94 Paediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU)/ Special Newborn Care Units (SNCU) and 64 Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) to be created in the medical colleges at Burla, Cuttack, Balasore, Koraput, Berhampur, Baripada and Bolangir.
Similarly, 15 per cent of the total beds in Covid hospitals would be reserved for paediatric patients. As many as 10,736 general beds and 4,072 ICU like beds are there in the existing Covid hospitals across the state. Now, 1,455 general beds and 408 ICU beds will be dedicated to the children.
All the district and sub-divisional hospitals have been directed to reserve at least 10 beds for isolation of the suspected cases and transfer the symptomatic patients to the appropriate Covid hospital. About two to four beds will be reserved in the community health centres for such patients, the government said. If a child found Covid positive, he/she will be transferred to the appropriate Covid hospital.
The superintendents of government medical colleges and chief district medical officers (CDMOs) have been asked to keep sufficient stocks of the required medicines, consumables and medical oxygen for the treatment of children.
In the areas where the caseload is expected to be high, the government will set up standalone paediatric Covid Care facilities.
To start with, the facilities created will be managed by the available manpower, while trained manpower will be deployed in a later stage.
Online capacity building training will be provided after identifying trained doctors and paramedics from the peripheral hospitals and they will be deputed to the nearest medical college in a phased manner.
As per the suggestions made by the committee ledby head of the paediatric department of SCB Medical College and Hospital, the government has initiated the process for procurement of the required list of equipment consumables & medicines through Odisha State Medical Corporation Ltd (OSMCL)
