Amid border tension, emergency healthcare plan activated, mobile vans to act as clinics

Amid growing tensions along the India-Pakistan border, the Haryana Health Department has ramped up its preparedness to handle any medical emergencies that may arise. Key measures include converting mobile medical vans into temporary primary care centres, identifying sites for field hospitals, and ensuring availability of critical medical supplies and personnel.

– Key measures include converting mobile medical vans into makeshift primary care centres, identifying sites for field hospitals, and ensuring availability of critical medical supplies and personnel

– Officials asked to make operating theatres, procedure rooms, and burns wards functional in hospitals beyond just the district-level facilities to expand emergency capacity

Chairing a review meeting in Chandigarh today, Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Sudhir Rajpal directed health officials to make operating theatres, procedure rooms, and burns wards functional in hospitals beyond just the district-level facilities to expand emergency capacity.

“We held a meeting in which our senior doctors and civil surgeons have been given charge of specific duties. The doctors in Health, AYUSH and those in medical education will work in unison,” said Rajpal.

A comprehensive inventory of available doctors along with their specialisations is being compiled. Simultaneously, a line-listing of ICU beds, ventilators, and other critical care infrastructure across government and private hospitals, including medical colleges, is being prepared at the district level.

High on the department’s priority list is the availability of blood and blood components. Though stocks of 56 emergency medicines, 43 consumables, and blood supplies are currently adequate, districts have been instructed to audit their inventory and coordinate with neighbouring areas for faster mobilisation when needed.

Mobile medical vans will be equipped to act as on-the-spot primary care centres to provide immediate first aid for minor injuries. All hospitals have been instructed to keep up to 200 emergency kits ready. District hospitals, which typically have only one doctor on emergency duty, have now been directed to ensure at least two to three doctors are available at all times.

Civil Surgeons have also been tasked with preparing a roster of 25-30 doctors and an equal number of paramedics who can be deployed swiftly to nearby districts if necessary.

Further measures include ensuring oxygen delivery systems are operational, that all oxygen plants are functional, and that power backup is available up to the level of Community Health Centres (CHCs) to manage any blackouts.

Haryana Tribune