Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath visited HAL COVID Care Hospital set up under HAL’s Corporate Social Responsibility at the Haj House, Lucknow today and appreciated the facilities and services provided for the Covid patients in a short span of time.
The 255 bedded Covid Care Hospital handed over to the state authorities by HAL is now open for patients. This facility includes 130 beds with oxygen support, 100 with High Flow Nasal Cannula (HFNC) and 25 with ventilators. This hospital will be managed by the UP Government through Care India, an NGO and charity organization. The technical support is to be provided by HAL (Hindustan Aeronautics Limited).
HAL was instrumental in procurement, installation and commissioning of the infrastructure and will ensure maintenance and servicing of the X-Ray machines, nebulizers, oxy-meters, wheel chair, stretchers, BP monitors, Multi Para Display Monitors for ICU beds, CCTV monitoring system, ECG machine, bio chemistry analyzer, incubator, serum electrolyte analyzer, cell counter etc.
The UP Government will involve itself in hospital operations and management through Care India with focus on medicine availability, hospital consumables, logistic and management of oxygen refilling.
Earlier, an MoU in this connection was signed between Mr Sanjay Kumar Garg, General Manager, HAL, Lucknow and Mr Sanjay Bhatnagar, Chief Medical Officer, Lucknow in the presence of District Magistrate Mr Abhishek Prakash. Mr Rakesh Mishra, Chief of Projects (CoP), HAL and other senior officials from HAL Lucknow and UP Government were also present.
(The author is a Delhi-based, DCC qualified, defence beat writer and independent contributor to print and online publications)