AIIMS director Randeep Guleria on Wednesday said the trauma services will restart partially at the AIIMS Jai Prakash Narayan Apex Trauma Centre here from August 31 onwards. As the COVID-19 cases are declining the demand for non-Covid care, including trauma has increased, following that this decision has been taken to operationalize the trauma centre partially, he stated.
The director said, some selected wards or floors will continue to be used for Covid care, while the trauma emergency, for the time being, will be run from the main AIIMS hospital only.
“In addition, this is being done in a manner that in case there is a surge in cases, the trauma centre can again quickly be converted into a dedicated COVID-19 facility as was done during the first and second wave”
“From Friday onwards, a trial will be done and it will be functional from August 31,” he said.
This decision has been taken after a meeting was held on the coronavirus situation on Tuesday, chairmanship of Guleria. In the meeting, it was decided to operationalize the trauma wards, ICU, OTS and radiology services for trauma care (non-Covid) by the coming weekend.
Both Covid and non-Covid services will be run from the trauma centre.
According to a circular issued by Trauma Centre chief Rajesh Malhotra it has been mentioned that “The trauma emergency, for the time being, will be run from the main hospital and all emergency operations will be done in the main hospital. Relatively stable patients will be admitted in the trauma centre and elective surgeries/surgeries on such patients will be done at the Jai Prakash Narayan Apex Trauma Centre (JPNATC).”
“All departments are advised to prepare their respective area and make it functional by August 27. They are also advised to rationally redistribute instrument sets and trained manpower between main AIIMS and JPNATC to ensure services are run smoothly. “They can transfer the patients from August 28 such that the first OT case can be taken on Tuesday (August 31), the circular added.
It further said, using portable machines the X-ray and ultrasonography (USG) for coronavirus patients and the first floor CT room will be used for such patients only. Moreover, there will be no direct admissions at JPNATC. Only elective/relatively stable patients will be operated on from 8:30 am to 5 pm in operation theatres (OTs).