Dr. Chhang's Covid hospital- Growing cases in lone Covid hospital a concern

SANKHA GHOSH, SNS. SILIGURI, 31 MAY 2020: While Covid- 19 patients from across the districts continue to be admitted in the lone Covid hospital in Siliguri, concerns are being raised on whether the 100-bed hospital can handle the flow further.

The spike in cases has also led to officials of Darjeeling district planning to improve infrastructure of other health facilities to accommodate Covid-19 patients.

Dr Chhang's Super Speciality Hospital at Matigara has seen a rush of Covid patients in the past few days, as cases from other districts like Alipurduar,Jalpaiguri and CoochBehar are also being admitted there.

A bulk of the patients presently is from Alipurduar and CoochBehar districts. Some patients from Jalpaiguri and Malda districts are also admitted here.

The number of patients is rising and we will soon be overburdened if the trend continues and if Covid-19 hospitals are not opened in other districts. It will be impossible for health care service providers to perform duties if the cases keep rising here." said a source at the health department.

Until 6.30 pm today, 59 patients were admitted in the hospital. Of them 32 are from CoochBehar alone, five from Alipurduar, and one from Malda, along with those from the Siliguri sub-division and the Hills.

"We are planning to upgrade the infrastructure of the health facilities for Covid 19 patients.The matter, however, is at the discussion level, Darjeeling district magistrate S Ponnambalam said.

The state government took over the nursing home in April as the first dedicated hospital for Covid-19 treatment in north Bengal.

"The hospital is meant for north Bengal, but later, such hospitals have been opened in the districts too.

However, lack of proper infrastructure there is leading to the pressure here in siliguri," a health department official said.

It is learnt that the hospital has 10 doctors, around 30 nursing staff, and around 20 supporting staff, including laboratory technicians housekeeping, and X-ray and MRI technicians.

Questions are being raised as to why the infrastructure in the districts could not be prepared even when the virus has been spreading rapidly for months now.

The officer on special duty for Covid- 19 in north Bengal, Dr Susanta Kumar Roy, said the strength of beds at the health facilities of Covid-19 treatment will be increased.

"The number of beds will be increased in the districts according to the requirement," Dr Roy said.

Dr Chhang's Hospital hospital presently has a high dependency unit, ICU facility, and has some ventilators, while four more will be brought soon, sources have said.

Sources have said that the number of staff in the hospital is also not enough to handle such load, and that demands for more staff members have so far have landed deaf ears.

"A team of frontline health workers treat patients in the hospital for seven days and go into quarantine for two weeks, while another team takes over for another week. Given this practice, the number of staff at the hospital is not at all enough," a source said.