Existing healthcare infrastructure got a boost by addition of a 500 bedded COVID hospital built by the country’s premier Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) which was inaugurated by Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha thus dedicating the facility to Jammu. Apart from meeting the pressure load of virus infected people with its inbuilt facilities and better equipped medical infrastructure like 125 ICU beds and all others with much needed oxygen facility , notable thing about coming up of this hospital is within shortest span of time and the entire team looking after it working round the clock. The team deserves all praises to let this hospital be ready in record time to keep pace with the demand for admission in hospitals of the COVID infected persons. Basically, looking after and promoting strategic multifarious defence related latest technologies and scientific developments through its network of laboratories , DRDO building a hospital like the one under reference only points out to the varied activities related to medicine and healthcare this organisation can take upon itself. It may be recalled that DRDO recently created a history of sorts by producing an effective anti COVID drug , known as 2-DG which is going to be available at affordable price , commercial launch of which was expected by the end of June this year. Situated at Bhagwati Nagar, in the heart of Jammu, this hospital having come up while the second wave of the COVID pandemic was raging with all round pressure on hospital beds and allied facilities needed for treatment of COVID patients, would prove of immense help in treating the patients where under one roof, all prerequisites for timely treatment are existing in this hospital. Those are round the clock oxygen supply, ventilators, monitors, in-house pharmacy , diagnostic facilities, X-Ray and CT Scan facility and the like. In other words, quick and prompt treatment to admitted patients has been fully ensured. We hope initiatives like the DRDO can go a long way in supplementing the efforts of the Government in improving upon the existing and adding new infrastructure in healthcare sector. It is noteworthy that any hospital coming up, as we may be needing more looking to the predictions of the medical experts about the “imminent ” possibility of the third corona-virus wave hitting the country , that the hospital should be having all the facilities and testing , X-Ray, CT Scan and in- house pharmacy which not only would be increasingly useful to the patients but for attending Doctors as well in early diagnosing and treating the patients. We do not hesitate in saying that the importance required to be given to healthcare projects like the one under reference, has not been on preferential basis . Experience and lessons drawn from the second wave vis-a-vis the official preparedness must now percolate in according top most priority to health infrastructure even if it meant postponing some in others sectors. Saving lives should be the aim and objects of the Government and its various agencies and if deficiency of funds are any stumbling block, raising the same by increasing revenues must be explored. At the same time, we need to be alert and responsive to the healthcare needs of the rural and far flung areas and apart from the well devised Panchayat Covid Care Centres for such areas , nearest outreach of hospitals should be made possible for those patients needing to be shifted from the basic Panchayati Centres for which prompt and readily available ambulance services should be made available. While we hope the new hospital at Bhagwati Nagar which has started operating shall lighten the pressure on the other COVID care hospitals, yet without human resources being augmented and optimum use of the available strength and professional expertise made , mere opening of hospitals would not meet the desired ends.
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