The Goa Government's decision to convert the South Goa District Hospital into a 250-bed COVID-19 treatment facility will kickstart the work from Friday. This decision has been taken as a direct consequence to the spike in the number of coronavirus cases in the state, which currently clocks at 21,630 cases. This is the third COVID treatment facility that is being set up by the State to haemorrhage the spreading virus.
The hospital in Margao would recast as a COVID treatment facility at half the total institute potential. 250 out the total 500-bed capacity will be commissioned for the treatment of virus-infected individuals in the state which are growing at an alarming rate in Goa. As of now, an active caseload of 4,499 patients are being treated at the ESI Hospital in Margao (South Goa), the Goa Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) near Panaji (North Goa) and the Sub-District Hospital in Ponda (South Goa).
The Health Minister further elaborated that the third treatment facility in the state will have a consolidated workforce from the Goa Medical College (GMC) and Directorate of Health Services (DHS) and will comprise of a pool of medical officers, expert doctors, nurses and multi-tasking staff (MTS). The workforce shall have a jointly agreed upon rotational timetable by GMC and the DHS. Another decision to deploy the final year nursing students at Non-COVID health care centres has also been set in motion to designate experienced nurses for COVID duty. In tandem with the directions of the Medical Council of India, final year MBBS students will be deployed as hospital residents, the minister tweeted.
Besides staff, two 24/7 GVK EMRI ambulances would be stationed at the facility. This facility has been made available to transfer critical patients to the ESIC hospital which is about a km away, or to the GMCH, which is near Panaji. The state will continue to treat critical COVID patients at GMC while moderate COVID patients will be at ESIC and mild COVID patients at SGDH or SDH (Sub-District Hospital) Ponda.
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