Mumbai’s Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) Covid hospital has played a pivotal role in the Maximum City’s long fight against the deadly infection. A 2,000-bed makeshift hospital, which was built in just 14 days during the first wave of Covid-19, is the first of its kind in India and the second transit Covid hospital. The Sunday Guardian took a look at the jumbo facility to see how it is functioning.
Amid the surging number of Covid-19 cases and considering the demand for a dedicated isolation treatment facility, the BMC took the bold but necessary decision of building a transit hospital at BKC, MMRDA Grounds, in a short span.
Built on BKC’s largest grounds, this massive facility houses 2000 Covid-19 beds, including 108 ICU beds, 12 dialysis beds, and oxygen and ventilator facilities. Having treated over 22,000 cases, the hospital has 330 doctors and 330 nurses, working round-the-clock to help Mumbai beat the virus. It has already successfully treated more than 10,000 patients without any mortalities.
Dean Dr Rajesh Dere, while speaking to TSG, explained the whole process followed at the jumbo Covid hospital, from registration at no-contact cubicles, the observation department, to complete treatment and follow-up.
“I, or anyone here, never had an experience of coming up with such a transit setup and working on it. It was the biggest challenge and not an easy task, but we could do it. My whole team is the reason for such a massive setup and
its functioning. While treating doctors and nurses undoubtedly play an important role, it’s also my admin team that has put in relentless efforts, managing and coordinating everything. Since day one, thousands of corona-infected patients have been treated and discharged from the centre, with a low mortality rate. The number of patients admitted for treatment is high.”
Dr Dere added, “Once a patient comes and gets themselves registered, they are taken to the observation room. This is a unique technique like casualty wards in hospitals. The patient is observed and then accordingly he’s shifted to oxygen, non-oxygen, ICU or ICU with ventilator wards, which range from Ward A to Ward Z, with separate wards for male or female and geriatric ward for senior citizens. After this their medical treatment is decided and if someone requires it as per their symptoms, related medication is given. All these patients are monitored minutely on CCTV cameras. There’s a control war room, from where senior consultants monitor and evaluate each patient’s medical condition remotely.”
Talking about the rise in cases of black fungus, Dr Dere said, “We don’t have such cases now but all protocols given by BMC are followed.”
Besides handling the second Covid wave, the centre has also come up with a vaccination centre which has received a massive response with more than 241,000 vaccinated, including HCWs, FLWs, elderly citizens as well as citizens above 45 years of age. However, that has been halted right now due to Cyclone Tauktae. There is a separate team which is working on this.
Recently, Bharat Ratna awardee and singer Lata Mangeshkar lauded the work of BMC’s ‘jumbo’ Covid hospital at BKC by writing personalised handwritten notes which read, “You are working day and night for Maharashtra. May God bless you all forever.” Dr Dere said that it gave strength to the whole staff to serve patients better.