Establishing COVID-19 Hospitals in Record Time
S.N. Sahu
As the new
coronavirus is highly contagious and spreads at an accelerating speed causing
havoc around the globe, separate hospitals to treat COVID-19 patients are
indispensable. Keeping in mind such requirements Naveen Patnaik, chief minister
in the government of Odisha declared on 26th March that two standalone
hospitals with all operational facilities capable of treating 800 corona
patients would be set up in eight days, one each in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack.
The Odisha Mining
Corporation has released funds from its accounts to finance these two
hospitals. It was indeed a trendsetting announcement in the whole country. In
the encircling fear and gloom spawned by the pandemic's frightening spread the
announcement to set up two hospitals created hope and confidence among people
that some state governments at least are determined to save them from this
viral disaster.
Such an announcement,
coming at a time when there were hardly any COVID-19 positive patients and no
deaths in Odisha, brought out the seriousness of the state government in
grappling with the menace by adopting preventive and curative approaches.
As China did during
the worst of the outbreak in that country, building separate hospitals in record
time to provide treatment facilities in an environment which would not spread
infection and prevent human contact with patients who are victims of virus, the
importance of establishing such separate hospitals has been underlined by
experts and medical professionals in reputed medical journals.
The article 'Allocation of Scarce Medical Resources in the Time of CoViD-19' published in
the New England Journal of Medicine on March 23 expressed concern in the
context of the United States, saying that "Even a conservative estimate shows
that the health needs created by the coronavirus pandemic go well beyond the
capacity of US hospitals." We have seen on television the grim situation
prevailing in hospitals in most "developed" countries where patients do not find
adequate space for isolation, care and treatment. Even doctors and health care
personnel there have proven extremely vulnerable to getting infected or
exhausted.
In Odisha the two
hospitals being readied in partnership with two private medical institutions
demonstrate a forceful and focused campaign to crush the virus based on
public-private partnership. The correct decision by the state government that
patients admitted in these hospitals would get care free of cost including
their food and stay brings out its humanitarian approach in dealing with this
epochal threat. It is an example worthy of emulation by other states.
These two hospitals
in combination with the chief minister's first of its kind pronouncement on
March 13 that COVID-19 is a disaster as per the National Disaster Management
Act of 2005, and that rigorous disease distancing must be practised to defeat
the menace make him a statesman capable of dealing with this peril. Such a
positive step in this exceptional crisis generates positive feelings among
people, that authorities enjoying the popular mandate are rising to the
occasion to allay their fears and anxieties.
It is reminiscent of
the leadership of Utkal Gaurab Madhusudan Das who while speaking in the Central
Legislative Assembly on 21 February 1923 on the cholera epidemic said, "The
first thing that struck me was… to make the people feel that there is a
Government which feels for them, which provides for their relief, which is
anxious to see that they are cured, that they are protected against the spread
of cholera."
One is mindful also
of the words of Mahatma Gandhi who when requested to inaugurate a hospital
famously said that he would be happier if its founders would extend an
invitation to him to put a lock on it, to declare its closure after the
successful completion of its work.
It is hoped that the
two separate hospitals established by the Odisha government in record time of
eight days and made operational with all facilities will one day become
redundant. It is sincerely hoped that the non-pharmaceutical and preventive
measures adopted by the government such as distancing, handwashing with soaps,
discouraging the practice of spitting in public spaces, and shutting down
almost all human activities will eventually liberate people from the
potentially lethal infection.
The author served as
Officer on Special Duty and Press Secretary to President of India the late Shri
K.R. Narayanan
