LNJP's plan to restart ER services hits space hurdle
New Delhi: Delhi government's largest teaching hospital, Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Hospital (LNJP), was set to resume Emergency services from Thursday but has had to delay the move because of a lack of space.
LNJP's Emergency Block is currently being used as its COVID-19 treatment facility.
As per a January 15 notification from the Health and Family Welfare department, LNJP along with five other major hospitals under the Delhi Government was ordered to further de-escalate the number of beds reserved for COVID-19 patients. Following this, the office of Lok Nayak's Medical Director had issued an order stating that the hospital will start "indoor admissions and emergency services in Gynaecology, Paediatrics,
Neonatology, General Surgery and Orthopaedics from January 21". Operation Theatres were to be made functional by January 27.
However, since the emergency block has been reserved for COVID-19 services, and the administration has been unable to find another suitable venue, the hospital has had to delay resuming emergency services.
A senior doctor at Lok Nayak said, "Things are not working out at the pace that we had initially assumed". At the same time, while OPD services have resumed, doctors say that the patient footfall is not as heavy as they expected.
Dr Keshav Singh, President of LNJP Resident Doctors' Association said that
many patients with high autoimmune risks might still be apprehensive about OPD consultations.
"OPD services had to be resumed from January 4 but got delayed and were finally re-opened on January 11 and 12 for some departments and are functional now. All patients undergo rapid antigen testing before consultation," he said.
Meanwhile, at Guru Tegh Bahadur hospital, the 2nd largest teaching hospital under Delhi Government, emergency, OPD and in-patient services have fully resumed, a resident doctor said.
While emergency services resumed on Thursday, OPD services had started from January 11. GTB is also accepting in-patient admissions.
