Nerchowk Medical College starts treating COVID 19 patients

After shifting of four COVID 19 positive cases from Chamba district to Shri Lal Bahadur Shashtri Medical College (SLBSMC) Nerchowk on Tuesday night, the medical college authorities have geared up for treating COVID – 19 patients .

The state government has designated SLBSMC Nerchowk as specialized COVID hospital of the state and is being utilised for treating COVID 19 positive cases, besides Indira Gandhi Medical College Shimla and Dr Rajender Prasasd Medical College Tanda.

The Nerchowk medical college hospital is having seven ventilators at present, which are required for treating COVID patients suffering from acute respiratory problems.

“But the college hospital is still not having PCR testing machine and CAT scan facilities. One PCR machine is lying unused in Zonal Hospital Mandi which requires permission from Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) and testing kits for making it operational”, tells a medical expert.

Additional deployment of trained medical doctors and paramedical staff would also be required for optimum utilisation of the SLBSMC hospital. Since this college is located in the home district of Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur the health authorities in the state would be hard pressed to create all facilities required here, speedily.

Principal of SLBSMC Nerchowk Dr Ranjish Pathania said, “Four patients with COVID 19 have been shifted here from Chamba district and we are well prepared to treat such cases after designation of the hospital as COVID hospital by the state government and are following standard protocol of treatment.”

He said, “Since issue of installation of CT scan machine and PCR machine are pending for long we would request the authorities to take up these issues on the priority.”

At present fifty beds have been provided in the hospital and can be extend up to 100.

Meanwhile DC Mandi Rugved Thakur said, “There is no need of scare among people in the district as there are proper facilities, trained medical and para -medical staff for treatment of COVID 19 patients and standard protocol is being followed in handling such cases.”