AMCH to be turned into dedicated COVID-19 hospital, says Himanta Biswa Sarma

A Correspondent

Dibrugarh: “Assam Medical College and Hospitals (AMCH) will stop treating other patients, except ones of Cardiology, Maternity and Burn unit, from tomorrow, and will dedicate itself to the treatment of patients afflicted with COVID-19,” announced State Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma at a press conference on Saturday in a bid to step up the fight against COVID-19.

The patients suffering from other diseases, who would otherwise go to AMCH, will be offered the respective treatment by 27 private nursing homes that the government has entered into an agreement with under the Atal Amrit Abhiyan and Ayushman Bharat Scheme, added Sarma, who was here to eke out the said agreement with the owners of the private hospitals.

However, he clarified that the other patients of AMCH, who were undergoing treatment for other diseases, would not be asked to leave immediately but would be moved to nursing homes at the earliest opportunity available. He further said that those who did not have the cards to avail the benefits under the said schemes could avail it from the office of the Joint Director of Health after getting themselves admitted in the private nursing homes.

In another important announcement, he informed that five 300-bedded ad-hoc hospitals to deal with the current health crisis would be built across the State, including in Guwahati and Dibrugarh, in the next two months. He added that the hospitals would be built of pre-fabricated structures and would last for 5 years, besides saying that the site for the hospital in Dibrugarh would be finalized in a day or two. Sarma, in the meeting, also requested the private owners to make special arrangements to make the medicines, which fell beyond the ambit of the aforementioned schemes, available to the patients at the cheapest rates possible. At the same time, he also made an impassioned appeal to the public requesting them to exercise necessary restraint, moderation as well as austerity with respect to their eating habits till the looming threat was over.

In the same breadth, he also urged all district administrations across the State to be very strict till March 31 and not to show any unwarranted leniency to or take any sympathetic decision for the people that might inadvertently expose them to the virus. Saying that MPs across political lines had donated for the burning cause, he also appealed to the public to donate, as per their individual capacities, to the Aarogya Nidhi Account, the proceeds of which he said, would be used for the construction of the said hospitals.

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