Rajnath Singh, Amit Shah visits the Sardar Patel Covid Hospital in Delhi

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh along with Home Minister Amit Shah and Health Minister Harsh Vardhan yesterday visited the Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel COVID hospital in Delhi. The one thousand -bedded hospital with 250 ICU beds became operational from yesterday. 

The facility was built in a record time of 12 days by Defence Research and Development Organisation, DRDO along with Home Ministry, Health Ministry, the Armed Forces, Tata Sons and other industry players. The Ministers were also accompanied by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy.

The Defence Minister expressed satisfaction after visiting the hospital. He appreciated the efforts of stakeholders in building this facility in such a short span of time. The national capital is currently experiencing a surge in 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 Home and Defence Ministries on the modalities of deploying a one thousand bed hospital in a span of less than 14 days. Talking to reporters, Defence Minister said, more than 250 Intensive Care Units are available in this centre. Mr Singh said, all the guidlines of World Health Organization are being followed in this hospital.

 

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 Airport Terminal T1 was identified and construction work by DRDO commenced on the 23rd of June.

The hospital will be operated by medical team 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 administration will be admitted and treated free of cost at this facility. Critical cases will be referred to AIIMS, New Delhi. The unique centrally air-conditioned medical facility is spread over 25 thousand square metres. Each ICU bed is equipped with monitoring equipment and ventilator.

 

The hospital consists of a 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 corridor network has been designed to keep the patient’s movement separate from the doctors and staff movement. Sanitation facilities and toilets are situated between the blocks for easy access to patients and facility personnel. The patient blocks are self-sufficient with facilities for patients and medical care staff. 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.