Noida/Ghaziabad: Ahead of a potential third Covid wave, which experts say might affect more children, hospitals in Noida and Ghaziabad are ramping up their facilities. Child PGI, which is the only hospital in Noida dedicated to the treatment of children, and Sharda hospital in Greater Noida are preparing to increase the number of beds from 50 to 100 and 160, respectively. They will also improve facilities in their NICUs (neonatal intensive care units) and PICUs (paediatric intensive care units).
Besides, the hospitals will bring in more paediatricians, neonatal experts, anaesthetists and other child specialists from other places.

Dr DK Gupta, director of Child PGI, said: “While the chief minister directed Covid facilities to prepare for the third wave, we at Child PGI had already held a meeting on the matter on May 14. It was decided that Covid care beds for children would be increased to 100, including 10 ICU beds. This will have complete top-of-the-line special care, including BiPAP, ventilator and HFNO (high flow nasal oxygenation) process with oxygen support on all the beds.”

The institute is also preparing to scale up operations at the medical college level. “We will be procuring oxygen cylinders, disposables, PPE kits, masks, resuscitation units etc,” said Dr Gupta, adding that an oxygen plant will be set up in a month while new medical equipment is expected in a week or two.

At the Sharda hospital, preparations are on to make lodging facilities for mothers. The hospital had recently launched a 21,000-litre liquid oxygen plant within its premises, where currently 200 Covid patients are undergoing treatment. In Ghaziabad, district magistrate Ajay Shankar Pandey held a virtual meeting on Monday with the management of 30 private hospitals in the city. “Hospitals have been directed to reserve 10 beds in each of these hospitals exclusively for children under PICU,” said Pandey.

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