In its latest effort to overcome the shortage of beds, the BBMP has turned the Government Maternity Hospital at Wilson Garden into a 25-bed transit oxygen delivery centre. It will act as a first-aid centre for patients with reduced oxygen saturation levels.
“Patients in home isolation panic when their oxygen saturation levels drop. Such patients will be provided medical and oxygen support until their saturation levels reach the normal 96%,” said Dr Shivakumar M, medical officer, South Zone, BBMP.
Though the centre’s primary objective is to improve saturation levels, the transit centre will also treat decongestion in the lungs. “We will admit patients with oxygen levels as low as 85% and then provide them oxygen along with basic medication to stabilise them,” Shivakumar explained.
While not admitting patients, the centre will act as a pitstop. “After providing oxygen support for a few hours, depending on the patient’s condition, they will either be sent back to home isolation or hospitalised for further treatment,” explained a doctor.
With 25 dedicated beds, the centre has reserved 13 beds for women patients and 12 for men. The BBMP has also deployed three doctors and six nurses to run the centre round the clock. The patients are identified based on tele-counselling triage of the home isolation patients carried out by the Covid war rooms.