Ponnuraj Appointed Nodal Officer for DK, Wenlock Hospital Reserved to Treat COVID Patients
Mangaluru: The former DC of Dakshina Kannada Ponnuraj has been appointed as the nodal officer for COVID-19 on March 27.
The former minister and the MLA of Ullal Constituency U T Khader met Ponnuraj and discussed the arrangements to be made while treating the suspected and specific cases of COVID-19 in the government Wenlock Hospital.
U T Khader said, “The Wenlock hospital is reserved to treat the COVID patients, in this connection APL and BPL patients who are shifted to private hospitals should be treated free of cost. The Wenlock hospital is providing dialysis to nearly 230 patients. Arrangements should also be made to provide dialysis in private hospitals. At present, there are 30 ventilators in Wenlock hospital, and there is a need for 70 additional ventilators to treat the patients. The responsibility to maintain the ventilators should be given to other Medical colleges”.
U T Khader further advised and said, “A counter should be set up outside the Hospital premises to give information to the patients coming to the hospital for the first time for emergency cases, and they should be sent to other private hospitals for treatment. “Arogya Mitra” should start checking whether the patients shifted to different hospitals from Wenlock are being treated well. Measures should be taken to move high-risk TB patients under treatment in Wenlock hospital to private medical college hospitals”.
U T Khader also said, “The doctors, nurses and the staff who are treating the COVID-19 patients should be provided with COVID-19 kit and priority should be given to protect them. Since doctors and nurses have a fear of their family members getting infected when they go home after duty, they should be provided food and accommodation in nearby hotels or apartments. Due to lockdown, contract labourers are unable to attend duty at the Wenlock hospital. The contractors should get passes to their vehicles and give pick and drop service to labourers. The government has assured of starting COVID-19 test lab in Wenlock hospital, but so far, ICMR has not permitted them. The government should immediately take permission from ICMR to start the testing lab at Wenlock Hospital”.
DC Sindhu Roopesh, MLC Ivan D’Souza and District Youth Congress President Mithun Rai were also present.