The state government has deployed Harsha P S, Commissioner of Information and Public Relations , as the nodal officer will be establishing 500 ICU beds for treatment of Covid-19 patients in each BBMP zone.
Harsha revealed to DH that the team will be leveraging the funds obtained from Corporate Social Responsibility for increasing the bed count, iterating that several corporate corporate houses are taking up the required measures to support the initiatives.
He said, “Texas Instruments has come forward to set up a modular ICU unit with 86 critical care beds at the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases.”
He also mentioned that other companies have assured to give the funding for 169 ICU beds at the Leprosy Hospital, Epidemic Disease Hospital along with Jayanagar General.
Harsha said the team has planned to convert general beds for the government hospitals and medical colleges into oxygenated and ICU beds. He said this would deduce the turnaround time and curb allotment of extra manpower since the already existing staff can be utilized with the final year medical students. He further added the quality of the services and facility provided will depend on the CSR partner.
Apart from the CSR funds, Harsha said the government has also received donations in the form of medical equipment, which could be utilized for creating beds.
The team has maintained constant communication with various corporate houses to direct the available CSR funds towards increasing ICU beds. Harsha explained, “Collaborating with all of them to increase scale and speed is our main challenge.”
The official added, “The team is working on a war footing. We will set up as many beds as possible and as quickly as possible.”
