New Delhi: A Health Ministry team has found that Delhi's Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital (LNJP), which was designated by Central Government to offer Ebola treatment is not equipped to deal with the disease.
Central government had identified Ram Manohar Lohiya and LNJP hospital for treating Ebola patients after the outbreak of the disease. The officials who recently visited LNJP hospital as part of their review process found lacunae which needs to be addressed.
According to Ministry officials, "in case of an Ebola outbreak, only RML hospital is prepared to deal with the deadly virus in the national capital. The hospital does not have personal protective gears like gloves, gown (fluid resistant or impermeable) to cover clothing and exposed skin, hazmat suites, eye protection (goggles) to prevent splashes on eye, facemask to prevent splashes on nose and mouth, face shield to protect eye, nose and mouth, and closed shoes which are mandatory to deal with Ebola affected patients.
All health care providers upon entry into patient rooms or care areas need to wear the personal protective equipment. Also the isolation ward at the hospital is not at par with the ministry guidelines. As per the National Health Regulations, these isolation wards or rooms should be equipped with negative airflow, so that when a door is opened or closed, air flows in and not out.
It should also contain their own lab facilities. Further, the room needs to have an attached bathroom and wastes from the patient's bathroom requires to be disinfected before it enters the sewer system. "We have an isolation wards we had built to deal with swine flu cases. But Ebola requires high levels of quarantine.
There are engineering and structural modifications which have to be done. We have told the Ministry officials what all modications are possible. "Also we have asked the Ministry to provide us with the personal protective gears and we are awaiting their response," said Dr Sidharth Ramji, medical superintendent of the hospital.
Comments
0 comment