Already grappling to control the second wave of Covid-19, the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation (MBMC) led by its chief Dilip Dhole has started planning and gearing up to confront the third wave of the deadly pandemic which according to healthcare experts is not only inevitable but is most likely to impact children in a big way.
Keeping paediatric patients in mind, MBMC’s health department has formed a special task force (STF) comprising paediatricians and senior doctors to make necessary arrangements and formulate strategies that need to be adopted for the third wave, well in advance.
Apart from creating special paediatric wards, enhancing ICUs and oxygen facilities, the STF has been assigned with duties including collecting age-wise data of children and complete information about medical resources, nature of tests, procuring special paediatric ventilators and medicines for children and arranging workshops to train nurses, paramedical staff and other medical manpower in lines of Indian Council of Medical Research’s (ICMR) treatment protocol for affected children.
“We have already begun preparations for the possible third wave of COVID-19, with a special focus on children. A dedicated call center will also be set up to keep constant communications with the parents of children under treatment,” said Dhole.
The MBMC is also fine tuning its facilities to make arrangements of stay for either of the parents of the affected child who get admitted to the paediatric wards or ICU units.
While the Bharat Ratna Pandit Bhimsen Joshi Civil (Tembha) Hospital in Bhayandar which is a fully equipped dedicated covid health center (DCHC) will be converted into a paediatric facility, 100 more beds will be added to the civic care center (CCC) at the Pramod Mahajan Hall in Mira Road. Efforts were also in to enhance supply of medical oxygen at all treatment centers, officials said.
