Pune: A 110-bed capacity COVID Care Centre has been started at the Employees State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) hospital in Bibwewadi. Member of Parliament Girish Bapat inaugurated the centre on Saturday. This is the first phase of the centre and later the capacity will be augmented up to 300 beds.
Member of Legislative Assembly (MLA) Madhuri Misal, Divisional Commissioner Dr Deepak Mhaisekar, District Collector Naval Kishor Ram, Zilla Parishad President Nirmala Pansare, Deputy President Ranjeet Shivtare, Construction Committee Chairperson Pramod Kanade, Chief Executive Officer Ayush Prasad, ESIC health officer Sunil Zone were present for the inauguration function.
Earlier, the Bibvewadi facility was lying idle with just an out-patient department (OPD) and a dispensary only but no admission facilities. A few years back, the employees' federation had demanded construction of a 500-bed hospital at the Bibvewadi location. This new COVID Care Centre will now prove beneficial for patients in Bibwewadi, Marketyard, Swargate, Dhankawadi and Katraj area.
Bapat said, "Due to the COVID-19 outbreak the situation has worsened. Patients need to be treated on a humanitarian basis. We will ensure that all permissions from the central government are granted for the expansion of this hospital. Along with improving the hospital infrastructure, we will ensure that an adequate number of doctors, nurses and other medical staff is also made available at the hospital."
MLA Misal said, "This hospital had an Out Patient Department initially. We can arrange for a total of 300 beds at this hospital for treating COVID-19 patients. In the first phase, 110 beds have been made available for the COVID Care Centre housed here. Out of these 110 beds, 11 have a ventilator support system. 60 beds have an oxygen support facility. In the present scenario, every bed that we are adding for the treatment of patients is important. We will follow-up with the concerned authorities to make this hospital fully functional with respect to COVID-19 treatment facilities."
Earlier, eight hospitals of ESIC across the country were declared as dedicated COVID-19 hospitals.
