The Navi Mumbai Municipal Corporation (NMMC) has started converting the Airoli and Nerul civic hospitals into fully COVID hospitals following suggestions from the Niti Aayog about the threat of the third wave of COVID in October. Around 200 ICU beds have been planned at these two hospitals.
Considering the shortage of ICU beds and ventilators in the second wave of COVID, the civic body is setting up additional ICU and ventilators at NMMC’s Nerul and Airoli hospitals to treat COVID patients.
Civic chief Abhijit Bangar visited the hospitals to inspect the ongoing works of the hospitals which are expected to be ready before the possible third wave of COVID, by October.
“At present, the conversion of the general hospital to Covid Hospital is in the first phase. The work on the sixth and seventh floors of Nerul hospital and the fourth and fifth floors of Airoli Hospital is in the final stage,” said an official from civic health department.
During the inspection, Bangar clarified that quality should not be compromised in any way while carrying out the work. He ordered that electrical work should be done with the utmost care, as there is a risk of accidents like short circuits and fire.
According to officials, the two hospitals will have separate entrances and triage areas for COVID patients. Bangar also directed to complete the work of installation of Air Handling Unit (AHU) expeditiously by increasing the manpower and installing all the units at the same time in parallel. The acoustic work in the room of the AHU unit should be done carefully so that the patients would not be disturbed by its sound, the commissioner said.
As per the NMMC’s Health Department, apart from 200 beds, a separate pediatric ward of 80 beds each will be set up at both Nerul and Airoli hospitals.
Similarly, Bangar also suggested to plan a pre-natal and post-natal COVID ward of each of the 50 beds in these two hospitals.
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