Shah, Rajnath, Kejriwal visit newly-created 1,000-bed COVID-19 hospital

Home Minister Amit Shah and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh visited a newly-created temporary hospital with 1,000 beds, including 250 in the ICU, for COVID-19 patients here on Sunday, officials said. The facility has been constructed in just 12 days near the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport on a piece of land belonging to the Ministry of Defence.

"Visited the 1,000 bed Sardar Patel Covid Hospital, which has 250 ICU beds, along with @rajnathsingh ji. DRDO built it in record time of 12 days with assistance from MHA, MOHFW, Armed Forces and Tata Trust," Shah said in a tweet. Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy and Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal also accompanied Shah and Singh.

Shah said an Armed Forces Medical Services (AFMC) team will run the hospital while the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) will maintain it. The home minister said Prime Minister Narendra Modi is fully committed to helping the people of Delhi in these challenging times and this COVID hospital, yet again, highlights that resolve.

He thanked the DRDO, Tatas and the armed forces medical personnel "who have risen to the occasion and helped tackle the emergency". A home ministry statement said under the leadership of Prime Minister Modi, the home minister held a series of meetings since June 14 to review the COVID-19 management and ways to tackle it in Delhi-NCR.

On the directions of Shah a number of important decisions were taken that include reducing COVID-19 treatment rates to one third in Delhi's private hospitals, providing 20,000 additional beds, increasing testing by using rapid antigen kits, re-demarcation of containment of zones, contact tracing of infected persons with the help of 'Arogya Setu' and 'Ithas' aaps and providing COVID-19 telemedicine to the patients by expert doctors of AIIMS, it said. With the efforts of the Modi government, the 1,000-bedded Sardar Patel COVID hospital has been established in record time, the statement said. Delhi is currently experiencing a surge in the number of COVID-19 infections with an increasing number of patients requiring medical care.

An urgent need to augment the existing hospital beds capacity of Delhi for the COVID-19 patients was discussed between the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Defence on the modalities of deploying a 1,000 bed hospital in a span of less than 14 days, the statement said. The DRDO was asked to establish the hospital. It undertook the design, development and operationalisation of the facility on a war footing.

With the permission from the Indian Air Force, land situated near the New Delhi domestic terminal was identified and construction work by the DRDO commenced on June 23 at the site on Ulan Bator road, adjacent to the Controller General of Defence Accounts headquarters, the statement said. The hospital will be operated by teams of doctors, nurses and support staff from the Armed Forces Medical Services while the facility will be maintained by the DRDO.

Additionally, for the mental wellbeing of patients, the hospital has a dedicated DRDO managed psychological counselling centre. The COVID-19 patients referred by the district administrations will be admitted and treated free of cost at this facility, the statement said. Critical cases will be referred to AIIMS, it added.

The project has been funded with major contribution from the Tata Trust. Other contributors are M/s BEL, M/s BDL, AMPL, Sri Venkateswara Engineers, Brahmos Pvt Ltd, Bharat Forge and the DRDO employees voluntarily contributing of one day's salary, as per the statement. The unique centrally air-conditioned medical facility is spread over 25,000 sqm and is equipped with 250 ICU beds. Each ICU bed is equipped with monitoring equipment and ventilator, it said. The infrastructure is built with negative internal pressure gradient for safe contagion containment. The facility has been engineered using rapid fabrication technique based octanorm modules. The hospital consists of separate reception-cum-patient admission block, medical block with pharmacy and laboratory, duty doctors and nurses' accommodation and four modular patient blocks each consisting of 250 beds, the statement said.

The patient facilities include oxygen supply to each bed, X-Ray, ECG, haematological test facilities, ventilators, COVID test lab, wheel chairs, stretchers and other medical equipment, it said. The DRDO developed COVID-19 technologies productionised by the industry in the last three months such as ventilators, decontamination tunnels, PPEs, N95 masks, contact-free sanitiser dispensers, sanitisation chambers. Medical robot trolleys will be utilised at the facility, the statement said.

The facility will be secured with security staff, CCTV surveillance and access control systems. Commissioning of this hospital will contribute to an increase of 11 percent additional COVID-19 beds in Delhi, thus overcoming the current critical situation, the statement said.

A press release issued by the Defence Ministry said, "Shri Rajnath Singh expressed satisfaction after visiting the hospital. He appreciated the efforts of stakeholders in building this facility in such a short span of time." In a tweet in Hindi, Kejriwal said, "DRDO's 1,000-bed coronavirus hospital is ready. I thank the central government on behalf of Delhiities. It (hospital) has 250 ICU beds, which is very much needed in Delhi at the moment."