GMC to stop elective surgeries from Apr 19

Excelsior Correspondent

JAMMU, Apr 12: No elective surgery will be done in Government Medical College (GMC) Jammu from April 19 in view of resurgence of COVID-19 pandemic.
This was decided today in a meeting of heads of all departments held today under the chairmanship of Dr Shashi Sudhan Sharma, Principal, GMC Jammu.
During the meeting, all the HoDs emphasized that due to rise in COVID-19 cases, there is urgent need of increased infrastructure/manpower for COVID-19 wards/areas. After detail deliberations, it was unanimously decided to stop all elective surgeries from April 19 (Monday).
It was also decided that only essential emergency/oncology surgeries shall be conducted in GMC Jammu till further orders depending upon the COVID-19 pandemic situation. The meeting decided that all the COVID areas used earlier will be re-notified as COVID areas in a phased manner as agreed upon by the HoDs/specialties of all clinical departments.
Further, it was decided that to avoid overcrowding in the hospital premises only 50 patients will be given daily appointments per speciality/day for OPDs through dedicated mobile numbers already given to the respective HoDs. However, the telemedicine services will remain available as per the previous schedule.
The meeting also decided that 32 beds of ward Number 10 of Opthalmology will be used for the management of surgery patients in view of re-notification of ward Number 7 as COVID Ward.