Pediatric centres in 736 dists, 20K ICU beds planned
Gearing up for the impending third Covid-19 wave, the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday approved a new Rs 23,123 crore package to ramp up the medical infrastructure in the country.
Out of Rs 23,123 crore health package, Rs 8,000 crore will be given to the State Governments in 9 months to ramp up the infrastructure as per need.
Addressing a Press briefing after the meeting, new Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said the package “India Covid-19 Emergency Response & Health System Preparedness Package: Phase-II” will have provision for ICU beds, medicines, among other medical supplies.
Various theories about the third wave are doing the rounds with the majority of experts pointing out that it may arrive between August and December. It is likely to be more virulent given that 51 Delta Plus cases have already been reported from various States amid apprehension that it is likely to spread fast with people not following Covid appropriate behaviour.
Giving details, he said pediatric care centres will be set up in 736 districts and 20,000 ICU beds will be created under the Covid relief fund.
“The Rs 23,000 crore package will be given to deal with the problems that occurred in the second wave of Covid. It will be used jointly by the Central and State Governments,” Mandaviya said, adding that “we have to collectively fight against Covid.
“The limitation period is a maximum (9 months). We have to get it done quickly. The State Government will have to do it quickly. Our duty is to help the State in every possible way.”
This scheme aims to accelerate health system preparedness for immediate responsiveness for early prevention, detection and management, with the focus on health infrastructure development including for pediatric care and with measurable outcomes.
The Government will provide support to Central Hospitals, AIIMS, and other institutions of national importance under DoHFW (VMMC & Safdarjung Hospital, Delhi, LHMC & SSKH, Delhi, RML, Delhi, RIMS, Imphal and NEIGRIMS, Shillong, PGIMER, Chandigarh, JIPMER, Puducherry and AIIMS Delhi (existing AIIMSs and new AIIMSs under PMSSY) for repurposing 6,688 beds for COVID management,
National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) would be strengthened by providing genome sequencing machines among other supports, said a Government statement. Support would also be provided for expanding the eSanjeevani teleconsultation platform to provide upto 5 lakhs teleconsultations per day from the present 50,000 tele-consultations per day.
“This includes support to the States/UTs to enable teleconsultations with the COVID patients at the COVID Care Centres (CCCs) by strengthening hubs for eSanjeevani tele-consultation in all the districts of the country,” said the statement.
With various reports fearing that children will be worst affected in the third wave, the scheme aims to augment 20,000 ICU beds in the public healthcare system out of which 20% will be pediatric ICU beds.
Also, steps will be taken to ensure care closer to the community due to the ingress of COVID-19 in rural, peri-urban and tribal areas, by creating pre-fabricated structures for adding additional beds at the existing CHCs, PHCs and SHCs (6-20 bedded units) and support would also be provided to establish bigger field hospitals (50-100 bedded units) depending on the needs at tier-II or Tier-III cities and district HQs.
Under the scheme, 1050 numbers of Liquid Medical Oxygen Storage Tanks with Medical Gas Pipeline System (MGPS) will be installed with an aim to support at least one such unit per district while 8,800 ambulances will be added under the package.
