With India fighting against the second wave of Covid 19 with all its might, but still falling short at several places, the Thanjavur district administration in Tamil Nadu has taken a noble initiative of giving special attention to all those people who are in urgent need of oxygen. For this, a zero-delay triage ward with 300 oxygen beds has been started in the Thanjavur Medical College Hospital.
Speaking with Indian Masterminds, the Thanjavur District Collector M Govinda Rao said, “Now people suffering from the disease and who are in dire need of oxygen will not have to wait for the bed allotment. An oxygen bed in this 300-bed facility will be available at any given time in the day.”
CM STALIN INAUGURATES THE INITIAITIVE
On 3 June 2021, the newly elected Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Mr. M K Stalin inaugurated the 300-bed facility at Government Medical College Hospital in Thanjavur through videoconferencing in Chennai. During the inauguration, DMK’s Lok Sabha MP from Thanjavur, SS Palanimanickam, government Chief Whip Govi. Chezhian, MLAs Sakkottai K Anbazhagan, Durai Chandrasekaran, N Ashok Kumar, and TKG Neelamegam and District Collector M Govinda Rao were also present.
Mr. Rao said, “During the first wave of Covid 19, the Medical College Hospital in the district had around 667 beds with oxygen concentrators. Whereas, during the second wave, we have continuously put in our efforts to double the oxygen beds in the district.”
The oxygen beds were increased to 1000 during the second wave and in addition to that, the district administration with the help of Credai group, an apex body of private real estate developers, established this 300-bed facility in just seven days’ time.
The examination hall of Thanjavur Medical College was converted into a zero-delay triage ward and 300 beds with oxygen supply and necessities were added on a war footing.
IDEA BEHIND THE INTIATIVE
Thanjavur, situated in the east coast of Tamil Nadu, is an important centre for the South Indian region. Apart from the people of the district, it caters to patients of seven other neighboring districts.
Mr. Rao said, “The second wave brought more spread of the disease and more symptomatic cases in the district. During the peak of coronavirus assault, the district was recording more than 1,100 cases per day, which has now been come down to less than 900 cases per day. Slowly the cases are coming down but we are still facing positive cases through RT-PCR and some severely acute respiratory infection cases too.”
“As many people were coming through ambulances and lining up for oxygen bed allotment, we took up this initiative of providing zero delay in allotment of beds with oxygen concentrators to such people. In this, initial assessment is done by the doctors and immediately the patients are moved in this zero-delay triage ward so that they get the care with minimum of 10 litres per minute of oxygen support,” he added.
As of now, there is no shortage of beds in the government medical college hospital and the aim of the administration is not to disappoint any patient who is in urgent need of an oxygen bed.
