Srinagar, June 11: To prepare for the possible third wave of Covid-19, J&K government is mulling to train key staff for the existing hospitals and the two newly-commissioned DRDO hospitals at reputed institutions in J&K and outside.
The Health and Medical Education Department has issued an order seeking a list of staff working in or to be deputed in ICUs of the hospitals in J&K. The letter addressed to GMCs of Srinagar and Jammu, the five new Government Medical Colleges of J&K, Directorates of Health Kashmir and Jammu and SKIMS Medical College Hospital Bemina by Financial Commissioner Health and Medical Education has ordered that ICU teams be strengthened for tackling the “possible third wave”.
“The government intends to get the training of the ICU team members in the intensive care units of the premier institutions like AIIMS New Delhi, PGI Chandigarh and SKIMS Soura,” reads the order.
The training, the order says, would be for three months.
Specialists, doctors, nurses and paramedics woukd be included in the training programme.
The decision to train the manpower in handling intensive and critical care, a senior official said, was taken upon the recommendations in the action plan for tackling the possible third wave better. The official said that in the second wave, which is waning now, the dearth of trained manpower for ICUs was a major weak point of J&K’s heath sector. He said that there were hardly any functional ICU beds in peripheries putting the extra load of patients on the tertiary care hospitals.
As a result, the routine patient care was almost suspended, lending a serious jolt to healthcare delivery across J&K.
The J&K government, the official said, had also sought fast-track recruitment of staff in order to improve the delivery of healthcare and intensive care.
Earlier this week, J&K government issued instructions to compete the recruitment process for staff of two DRDO hospitals for Covid-19, one each in Kashmir and Jammu division.
GMC Srinagar, which is recruiting the key staff, is in the process of interviewing and conducting written tests for the posts of specialists, medical officers, technicians, pharmacists, nurses and paramedical staff.
Financial Commissioner Health and Medical Education Atal Dulloo said that the government had relaxed recruitment rules to tap the most of available expertise in J&K for rendering service in the pandemic.
“We have augmented infrastructure and we are committed to augment manpower to make J&K one of the best regions for healthcare delivery,” he said.