1,200 beds at Wardha for Nagpur’s mild & moderate cases

NAGPUR: Even as a 1,000-bed jumbo Covid hospital at Mankapur sports complex is being planned, and the civic body’s Indira Gandhi Rugnalaya added another 100 beds on Sunday, the district administration has decided to start shifting mild and moderate cases to Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College (JNMC) at Sawangi, Wardha.
JNMC would be the second Dedicated Covid Hospital (DCH) of the Datta Meghe Institute of Medical Sciences (DMIMS), whose Shalinitai Meghe Medical College (SMMC) has already started taking all types of Covid patients at its Hingna campus. SMMC DCH has 350 beds, with 56 patients currently admitted there. It has treated 367 patients. Since last week, GMCs have been shifting recovering patients to SMMC and Lata Mangeshkar DCHs.
JNMC, around 80km from here, has 1,000 beds, including 100 ICU beds, 500 oxygenated beds, 400 ambulatory (for asymptomatic patients if needed), and 40 quarantine centre beds in five blocks at Sawangi campus. Ready since mid-April, JNMC DCH took its first Covid admission on May 5, and has since treated 178 patients, with less than 20 said to be serious. As on date, 86 patients are admitted. Wardha district has 403 total cases while over 200 are still active at JNMC and Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences’s 200-bed DCH at Sevagram.
Keeping the under-utilization and low caseload in mind at Wardha, Nagpur district administration has proposed to divert Covid patients showing mild to moderate symptoms, as well as those on the path of recovery from severe stage, to JNMC DCH. Though concerns remain over transporting patients and relatives’ preference, the idea is to minimize load on GMCH and IGGMCH at Nagpur.
Divisional commissioner Sanjeev Kumar told TOI on Monday that hospitals in both districts have to be considered as part of one unit.
The plan follows the traditional pattern, where Nagpur is preferred medical hub for people from Wardha, Amravati and any other neighbouring places. “Just as there is no restriction on patients coming to Nagpur, those from here can go there too,” he said.
Kumar added, “All hospitals should simultaneously start and become used to Covid management. If all patients flood one hospital, then there are problems. Basically, we plan to divide patients, and as per comfort of people, assign hospitals. For example, if a patient’s doctor is in Wardha but he is admitted at Nagpur, such a patient would like to go to Wardha instead,” he said.
Kumar said no patients admitted to JNMC or MGIMS from Nagpur will have to pay since they would be covered by the state’s scheme.