Indore: Officials appear casual during Mock drill to check preparedness for Covid-19 as most private hospitals not inspected

Indore (Madhya Pradesh): In view of the surge in Covid cases in city, district administration conducted a mock drill in all the government and private hospitals across the city and ran the oxygen plants to know the concentration level.

However, the drill was not carried out seriously. For example, the health officials made a cursory check of oxygen plant readings and they were not even accompanied by any technical experts. They did not even bother to examine the preparedness of most of the private hospitals and asked the owners to send the details of facilities at their respective hospitals. As the private hospitals are sending the data at their convenience, the officials couldn’t update the report of the mock drill till late evening.

During the mock drill, oxygen plants of some of the hospitals couldn’t produce the required concentration of oxygen as they had remained idle for the last many months.

In most of the hospitals, the examination by health officials lasted just a few minutes! They came, made the round of the hospital quickly, clicked photographs and then went away! It appeared that their main aim was taking photographs and sending them to higher-ups to show that they had carried out the mock drill.

According to CMHO Dr BS Saitya, they have visited some of the hospitals and checked the facilities. “Oxygen plants of all the hospitals were running well and producing required oxygen at the required concentration. We have been updating the details of private hospitals as well,” he said while visiting Hukumchand Polyclinic and MTH Hospital.

IDSP nodal officer Dr Amit Malakar said that they have asked the private hospitals to send the details on a set Google form which includes information on total number of beds, isolation beds, oxygen beds, status of oxygen plants, medicine availability and others.

“Our team checked many of the hospitals including Bombay Hospital and Medanta Hospital where oxygen plants were running properly,” he said.

Meanwhile, MGM Medical College and associated hospitals claimed that they had conducted the mock drill using dummy patients.

Dean of MGM Medical College Dr Sanjay Dixit inspected the facilities in the hospitals associated with the college including Super Speciality Hospital, MTH Hospital, Chest Ward, and Cancer Hospital.

“Our preparations are satisfactory as our oxygen plant in MRTB Hospital produces oxygen with 98 per cent concentration while plants in Super Speciality Hospital and other hospitals are working well,” Dr Dixit said adding “There was some technical issue in the plant at Chacha Nehru Hospital but it was resolved immediately. The plant was producing about 98 per cent oxygen.