Many government and private hospitals in different parts of the country on Tuesday conducted mock drills to check the preparedness of health facilities to deal with any spurt in Covid-19 cases.

The mock drills focused on parameters such as the availability of health facilities in all districts, the capacity of isolation beds, oxygen-supported beds, ICU beds and ventilator-supported beds, and optimal availability of doctors, nurses, paramedics, AYUSH doctors, and other frontline workers, including ASHA and Anganwadi workers.

Union Health Minister, Mansukh Mandaviya, personally visited the Safdarjung Hospital in New Delhi along with senior doctors and officials to review the mock drill being undertaken for ensuring the readiness of hospital infrastructure for Covid management.

Mandaviya later said “I recently reviewed the Covid-19 status and preparedness of prevention and management of Covid with state health ministers. Mock drills are being conducted across the country today to review the preparedness for management of Covid-19, for which clinical readiness at hospitals is crucial.”

He said the Government, as well as private hospitals, were undertaking mock drills with state health ministers themselves reviewing the drills in their respective states.

He had an informal interactive session with the heads of departments and staff of the Safdarjung Hospital and Vardhman Mahavir Medical College. He spent around an hour with the heads of various departments, doctors, nurses, and heads of security and sanitation services and listened with patience to their numerous suggestions on quality hospital management, clinical practices, infection control measures, sanitation processes and patient-centered high-quality healthcare provision.

They shared their experience of working for providing round-the-clock services during the pandemic.
Mandaviya advised the heads of the departments to meet their teams every week, undertake a physical visit of all departments and evaluate their performance to ensure the best output. He also praised the doctors for their exemplary work during the pandemic.

He cautioned against complacency and urged everyone to follow Covid Appropriate Behaviour. He underlined the need to remain alert, refrain from sharing unverified information and ensure a high level of preparedness.
“Covid cases are rising all over the world and India might witness a spike in cases too. Hence it is important that the entire COVID infrastructure in terms of equipment, processes and human resources are at a state of operational readiness”, he stated.