New field hospital in Birbhum will give better support to rural communities
We open this week with some important news. AID will be supporting the setup of a rural field hospital in Nagari, Birbhum district, West Bengal, by the Liver Foundation. The first one will hopefully be operational by Friday/Saturday of this week. The centers will have 2 doctors and 2 nurses. One round of training for health workers has been completed.
Training for health workers in the newly set up field hospital in Birbhum, West Bengal (May 2021)
Although COVID has hit large urban centres hard, we are barely beginning to see its full impact in rural areas. Such hospitals will dramatically increase accessibility and provide care to COVID patients in the rural areas of the state. This will improve the management of the illness at its earlier stages, that is, between home-based care and hospitalization. By doing so, it will decrease the patient load on hospital beds, which can then serve those who need it the most.
Field hospital in Birbhum, West Bengal, set up in partnership with the Liver Foundation
- The field hospitals will be staffed with one fully trained COVID-care health-worker (a doctor) who will oversee multiple nurses and paramedical staff as well as housekeeping personnel.
- It will also have the minimum level of lifesaving drugs, such as steroids, but will not dispense or prescribe drugs that have questionable efficacy for COVID-19 (even though such drugs are currently being widely used in India).
- The hospitals will provide additional support to workers through a telemedicine system that Liver Foundation has developed.
- Finally, the field hospitals will have an oxygen supply through the use of concentrators.
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