Srinagar, Dec 27: Like other parts of the country, a mock was conducted today across Kashmir hospitals to check the preparedness and resources to deal with Covid-19.
SKIMS Soura conducted a mock drill to test resources in presence of Director SKIMS, Prof. Parvaiz A Koul and Medical Superintendent, Dr Farooq A Jan.
A spokesperson of SKIMS said the drill was aimed to have better preparedness with regard to required resources for Covid-19 management and to address deficiencies in advance.
Dr. Jan informed that four mock patients were arranged for the drill and the disaster ward with 21 beds equipped with all facilities was used for the drill.
Consultants and resident staff from General Medicine, Critical Care Medicine, Emergency Medicine, Hospital Administration and Nursing/Paramedic staff were present.
The exercise was conducted in presence of Director SKIMS and all arrangements were made in advance. Residents from Department of Hospital Administration coordinated the drill.
The drill was conducted from admission of patient to further management. The Director himself deliberated all case scenarios with residents of General Medicine and Critical Care.
All the resources including manpower, equipment such as ventilators, monitors, high flow devices, and infusion pumps were put to test. Availability of drugs like I.V. fluids, antibiotics, steroids, antiviral, electrolytes, life-saving drugs were also put to test.
The spokesperson said during the mock exercise, Senior Residents of Anesthesia/Critical Care Medicine resuscitated critical patients and ordered for all the necessary logistics.
“Availability was found up to the mark. All the Oxygen Ports were used simultaneously and there was no drop in Oxygen pressure,” he said.
The functioning of UPS backup was also tested. However, for more effective and smooth functioning availability of Portable X-Ray Machine and USG Machine need to be addressed.
“Other than this more ABG machines and high flow oxygen devices need to be arranged. Also, Syringe Infusion Pumps need to be arranged and for NIV there is a need of some more stocks of NIV masks of different sizes. Disposable ventilator tubing’s and HFNC accessories also need to be kept available in bulk stock,” the spokesperson said.
The director, MS and Administrative Incharge Emergency also visited all PSA oxygen plants to observe their functional status. The oxygen plants were functioning up to the mark and purity status of all plants was around 95 percent.
Similarly, the exercise was conducted in all district hospitals, sub district hospitals and health centers that work under administrative control of Directorate of Health Services Kashmir.
Director Health Services Kashmir, Dr Mushtaq Ahmad Rather said the drill focused on parameters such as availability of health facilities in all districts, capacity of isolation beds, oxygen supported beds, ICU beds and ventilator-supported beds.
As part of the drill, Dr Mushtaq visited JLNM Hospital Srinagar to overview the mock drill and preparations for Covid-19. He said doctors and healthcare workers are fully trained in Kashmir given their previous experience and management of the Covid-19 pandemic waves.
“Mock drills were conducted to see how prepared we are. We need to have full monitoring and keep all logistics ready. If any shortcoming is found, it would be addressed,” he said.
JAMMU: Keeping pace with other parts of the country, healthcare institutions of Jammu and Kashmir today conducted mock drill regarding Covid preparedness to assess the key facilities and logistics requisite to deal with any emerging situation due to the pandemic.
Secretary, Health and Medical Education Department, Bhupinder Kumar, monitored and supervised the conduct of Mock Drill exercises conducted across the UT to check the functionality in respect of key facilities and logistics for COVID management in healthcare institutions.
After reviewing the status of activities carried out at different healthcare institutions and assessing the data uploaded on the national portal, Secretary expressed satisfaction over successful completion of mock drills carried out by the healthcare institutions and their preparedness for the COVID.
The exercise included checking of Oxygen General Plants installed at different locations, availability of machinery and equipments, availability of drugs, diagnostics and other COVID logistics. All the healthcare institutions were found to be in the state of preparedness to tackle any upsurge of COVID cases in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir.
The Head of the Departments and Chief Medical Officers of the all the districts were issued instructions to ensure that the equipments which were found non-functional should be got repaired immediately and all unavailable logistics are arranged and kept in sufficient stock.
